Tribes at Maple Grove
What does Tribes mean?
A New way of learning and being together. The mission of Tribes is, “to assure the healthy development of every child "so that each has knowledge, skills, and resiliency to be successful in a rapidly changing world”.
The entire staff of Maple Grove Public School is committed to Tribes, a process that leads to the development of a positive environment that promotes human growth and learning. All of our administrators and staff have given up several days of their personal time to become trained and certified in the Tribes process.
The Tribes process not only establishes a caring environment for cooperative learning, but provides structure for positive interaction and continuity for working groups whether in the classroom, staff or school council meetings, and with the community at large.
The goal for a Tribes school is, “to engage all teachers, (all school staff and volunteers),administrators, students, and families in working together as a learning community that is dedicated to caring and support, active participation, and positive expectations for all students”. The Tribes school is a learning community where students, teachers, educational assistants, lunch supervisors, volunteers, community members, secretaries, custodians administrators and parents all enjoy the mutual respect and caring essential for growth and learning. The Tribes process requires building a school community using four agreements among the students and all adults involved.
These agreements are:
-Attentive Listening
-Appreciation/no put downs
-The right to pass
-Mutual Respect
The Benefits of Being a Tribes School
The Tribes process and the training that our staff have undertaken to become certified is based on significant bodies of research. Further research that follows Tribes schools over time has shown that…Students who maintain long-term membership in classroom tribes will...
· Actively participate in the learning process
· Communicate and work well with others
· Value diverse abilities and cultural differences
· Assume responsibility for their own behaviour
· Develop critical thinking and collaborative skills
· Improve their sense of self-worth and mastery of academics
Parents who become involved in the school community will report :
· Their children like school better than before
· Positive behavior carries over into the home
· Strengthening protective factors to foster children’s resiliency
· Appreciationg of their involvement with other parents and the staff of the school
· A new recognition of their own role in their children’s education
Teachers who are long-term members of staff planning groups and fully implement the Tribes process in their classroom will
· Spend less time managing student behavior
· Have more time for creative teaching
· Notice that students are retaining what they learn
· Enjoy professional dialogue and supportive colleagues
· Reduce their own levels of stress
· Enjoy teaching more than ever before
Administrators who use the Tribes process to organize and support their students, staff and parent community will
· Have fewer student behavior problems
· Benefit from significant and supportive parent involvement
· Over time, improve academic achievement
· Achieve recognition for transforming the school to excellence
“It’s true that there is no substitute for individual caring and commitment, but I have come to think that the real generative point in moving toward a learning organization is in small groups that form around commitments. These are groups of people who are really committed to something larger than themselves and larger than their own personal desires. They support each other in the way that real friends support each other. They tell the truth to each other and they are continually in a mode on inquiry, knowing that nobody know and everybody can learn continually.”
Peter Senge
(author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and
Practice of the Learning Community)