Bonding Braid Activity: Fostering Staff Relationships That Students Prosper From
They know there’s a place to go for that support. That’s key in building your culture and climate: that everybody is accessible and people want to be [supportive].
– Angela Stevens-Stevenson
INTRO
This staff activity was shared by the former principal of Martin Luther King, Jr. Junior High School, Angela Stevens-Stevenson, in a Crowdsource Webinar on November 17, 2022.
As a school leader, you’re there to support your staff, but you can’t be everywhere at once. Providing the space and opportunity for your staff to develop and cultivate positive, empathetic, and supportive relationships with each other ensures everyone feels both supported and useful. Ultimately, a supported staff is better able to support students, and that’s the reason why we’re all working together.
OBJECTIVES
- Provide the brave space and time for staff to form supportive bonds with each other
- Explicitly discuss what support means and looks like
ACTIVITY
- Arrange chairs into a fishbowl circle: one inner circle of chairs facing out toward another outer circle of chairs facing in
- same number of chairs for each circle creates pairs/partners
- Provide each person with three pieces of string or yarn (use your school colors to nurture the team-building culture)
- The partner in the inner circle is the first storyteller and holds together the pieces of string/yarn
- The partner in the outer circle is the first braider/listener and will braid the pieces of string/yarn as they listen to the storyteller partner (they should be directed to braid constantly, but slowly)
- Provide the group with a thought-provoking personal storytelling prompt (or prompt options) to guide the stories being told
- EXAMPLES: Who helped you to make a decision to become an educator? What are your greatest goals or aspirations as an educator?
- The inner circle partner holds together the pieces of string/yarn as they tell their prompt-guided story while the outer circle partner braids the string/yarn as they actively listen to their partner’s story
- You can either have partners automatically switch roles (but not seats) when they are done, or you can take some whole-group reflection time between rounds, but all partners switch roles (not seats) as the storyteller and braider/listener
- Continue the team-building after both partners have had a chance to both share and reflect together by having the outer circle members move one seat clockwise, so the activity can be repeated with new partners (change the story prompts to keep the bonding experiences fresh and authentic rather than rote/rehearsed)
- If there isn’t time to repeat the activity in one session, you can return to it (just keep track of the seating arrangements)
- Lead a discussion about what support and being supportive specifically look and feel like, and emphasize that this is the purpose of this activity – partners should be able to reach out to each other for support
- Your providing them with this bonding opportunity is a form of support
TIPS
- Discreetly pair people intentionally based on their predetermined (by you) seating placement for the activity (ie. inner circle vs outer circle).
- Be prepared to provide ample time for this activity and for it to possibly become an emotional experience for some.
- Little Things, such as the above activity, are smaller efforts you can do tomorrow, or within the next week.
Responses