Episode 6.6: Have you done a Community Circle in your classroom, yet?

A circle of chairs can do what a stack of rules never will. We start with a quick National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day warm-up, then we get into a practical, teacher-tested approach to building real classroom community: community circles.

We’re joined by Danielle Boggs and Laura Bain from our professional learning team to break down what community circles are and why they’re considered a restorative practice. We talk about the power of the physical circle for reducing classroom power dynamics, how a simple talking piece protects student voice, and why random seating can make circles feel more equitable. If you’ve been looking for social emotional learning routines that don’t feel forced, this conversation gives you clear moves you can try immediately.

If you’re curious about improving classroom culture, strengthening relationships, and creating psychological safety that supports learning, press play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review, then tell us: what question would you ask in your first community circle?

The More Math for More People Podcast is produced by CPM Educational Program.
Learn more at CPM.org
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Email: cpmpodcast@cpm.org

Transcript

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Warm Welcome And Cookie Day

0:17

Listening to the More Math for More People podcast, an outreach of CPM Educational Program. Boom

Misty 0:31

All right, here we are. It's our day of again, and it is August 4th.

Joel 0:38

It is

Misty 0:39

August is usually so warm in the Northern Hemisphere

Joel 0:43

You know, do you think July or August is warmer?

Misty 0:47

Well, where I live, August is warmer usually

Joel 0:50

I think, I, I think that's maybe true. I always feel like they're about the same. August though, s- at the beginning of July it's ramping up, end of August it's ramping down

Misty 1:03

Yeah. Yeah. That was kind of like at the end of July, beginning of August, so like right now.

Joel 1:08

Yeah. Like August 4th. Okay.

Misty 1:10

what I was saying. Exactly. So what's the day today? Not how hot is the summer day?

Joel 1:16

It is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Misty 1:21

Oh, chocolate chip cookie. This seems like that would be a very popular day

Joel 1:25

Seems like there's more than one day through the year that maybe people would celebrate

Misty 1:32

Chocolate chip cookies. Uh-huh. I think there's a lot of days that celebrate cookies

Joel 1:37

Mm-hmm. I bet that's true too.

Misty 1:40

or desserts, sweets, snacks of some kind. That'd be interesting to find out how many... Do you think that there's every... I know there's several options for every day. It's not like it's only one thing for each day, right? So is there something about food every day?

Joel 1:56

I would argue yes from my extensive research.

Misty 2:01

extensive anecdotal perusing of the days, paying attention to them.

Joel 2:06

Yes

Misty 2:07

Yeah. Okay. All right, so today is Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

Joel 2:10

Mm-hmm.

Misty 2:12

Well, that seems really obvious about what you should do for this day

Joel 2:17

What do you

Misty 2:18

chocolate chip cookies need like more like promotion

Joel 2:21

Hey. Okay, it's chocolate chip cookie day. N- uh, now who is, who are we talking to today? We'll just move on. Yeah, I d- I don't think you do. I think there's... I got some interesting facts about chocolate chip cookies

Misty 2:37

Okay, great. Tell me, when were they invented?

The Toll House Cookie Origin

Joel 2:41

oh boy, throw me for a loop. It says in 1938, they called it the creation of happiness,

Misty 2:51

Wow

Joel 2:52

Ruth Graves accidentally creates the first ever chocolate chip cookie. So it

Misty 2:56

accidentally create? How, what, okay, what was, what was she trying to do and didn't do?

Joel 3:03

Well, it doesn't go into that detail, but it, uh, was an accident.

Misty 3:12

Okay.

Joel 3:12

Yeah It's the official state cookie of Massachusetts

Misty 3:17

Mm-hmm. I, you want-- I can tell you what the AI tells me

Joel 3:23

okay, tell me. Yes

Misty 3:24

So it says Ruth Graves Wakefield, at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts...

Joel 3:31

house.

Misty 3:32

While baking for guests, she ran out of baker's chocolate and chopped up a semi-sweet Nestle chocolate bar, expecting it to melt into the dough. Instead, the chunks held their shape. That is the

Joel 3:43

that's the accident then

Misty 3:45

That is the accident.

Joel 3:47

That's pretty good

Misty 3:48

to make... I don't know what she was trying to make.

Joel 3:51

Chocolate cookies? Yeah

Misty 3:52

made chocolate chip cookies instead? But

Joel 3:54

Much better.

Misty 3:56

Yeah.

Joel 3:56

I, uh, and I, I like the chocolate chip more than I like a chocolate cookie, so

Misty 4:02

I just, I am very picky about cookies. I

Joel 4:04

Hmm.

Misty 4:05

mean, I don't eat a lot of cookies, not eating a lot of gluten, but I don't like them to be crunchy. I like them to be kind of like soft and I like... So it's just, I don't know. I don't, I'm not a person who's just like, "Whoo, cookies." Like, I, I

Joel 4:22

more of a h- a crispy cookie guy. I'd rather a crisp than a soft.

Misty 4:27

do you remember like Chips Ahoy?

Joel 4:29

Oh, yeah.

Misty 4:30

I didn't like those. They're crunchy cookies

Joel 4:33

They made good cereal

Misty 4:36

I don't think I ever ate that

Joel 4:38

Natalie Nickerson, who works for CPM, shared a mini chocolate chip cookie recipe that,

Misty 4:48

Wait, wait. Is it with small chocolate chips or is it small cookies?

Joel 4:53

Small cookies with small chocolate chips.

Misty 4:56

Okay, so it's both mini chocolate chips and mini cookies. Got

Joel 4:59

they're about the size of a nickel, and they...

Misty 5:02

Wow, those are really small

Joel 5:03

And then the mini chips. You use the mini chips. And that recipe, I tried it when she offered that up, and not only was it liked, I was asked to then make it in friend, family group another, like, five different times. All of a sudden everybody wanted this for their events.

Misty 5:23

Wow. The mini chocolate chip cookies.

Joel 5:26

it was really good. So thanks, Natalie

Misty 5:30

Yes. If Natal- if Natalie's listening, we appreciate it

Joel 5:32

Yeah.

Giant Cookie Stats And Skepticism

Joel 5:34

What do you think the weight of the world's largest chocolate chip cookie was? Is

Misty 5:40

Wait, it still exists?

Joel 5:42

I don't think so. People would've ate it 'cause it's so delicious

Misty 5:46

I'm gonna say, uh, it was 785 pounds

Joel 5:53

So what's interesting is it just says 38,000. So it doesn't say,

Misty 5:59

what?

Joel 6:00

doesn't say yeah, it doesn't say what the unit is. Yeah, 38,000

Misty 6:06

Well, this says, the AI says 40,000 pounds. It was 102 feet in diameter. How did they bake it? I wanna understand how they bake it. A giant custom-built oven.

Joel 6:20

Oh, I was gonna say in the sun, like if they went to a warm place

Misty 6:24

It says that the baking required a base of gravel and aluminum combined with a heat-trapping polyester cover, using more than 20 heaters to cook the dough evenly to 350 degrees. Hmm.

Joel 6:37

Do, does it say h-

Misty 6:39

dessert was cut into slices and sold to a massive crowd for $10 a piece, of course.

Joel 6:46

That's an expensive cookie.

Misty 6:47

they were raising money, so

Joel 6:48

Does it say in your research how many eggs they used for that

Misty 6:52

Yes, it does. It says, "The recipe famously included

Joel 6:56

Yes.

Misty 6:57

30,000 eggs, 12,000 pounds of flour, 6,525 pounds of butter, and over 10 million chocolate chips." That's a lot of chocolate chips. 10 million chocolate chips. I'm just... Like, I don't, I... 10 m- 10 million chocolate chips? That's a lot of chocolate chips, man. I

Joel 7:24

Mm-hmm.

Misty 7:25

don't know, like, I wonder

Joel 7:26

That's a lot

Misty 7:26

of chocolate chips that is. This is back to, like, how many chocolate chips are in a bag now, and, like, I wonder how many bags that is.

Joel 7:32

Well, do you know how many chips can be held in a normal tablespoon of cookie dough?

Misty 7:39

And

Joel 7:40

50. So that's a lot, that's a lot of chips, yes.

Misty 7:43

I don't think that... No. I- one tablespoon of dough of regular chocolate chips? No.

Joel 7:49

These are the, these are just the facts.

Misty 7:52

These are not those. No, I disagree with... I don't, I dispute that fact as being very

Joel 7:56

All right. What do you, what do you think the percentage of American adults who have admitted having eaten at least 20 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting? What do you think that percentage is?

Misty 8:10

65

Joel 8:11

13.5. Way lower.

Misty 8:15

Who have admitted,

Joel 8:16

Have admitted, that's right.

Misty 8:19

I mean, you ate 20 mini chocolatey chips probably in one

Joel 8:22

easy. Easy. 'Cause there's... Well, and they're so delicious, so how could you not? What do you think the average number of cookies, or what do you think the number of cookies the average person consumes in a lifetime is?

Misty 8:37

In a lifetime?

Joel 8:39

Mm-hmm. Just cookies

Misty 8:41

Just cookies. That's really hard 'cause there's such a huge variation in this

Joel 8:45

Yes

Misty 8:48

I'm gonna say 300

Joel 8:52

35,000.

Misty 8:53

No, that's BS. 35,000? That's a lot of cookies. I don't think I've eaten probably 1,000 cookies in my life. So that's, some people are eating a lot of cookies.

Joel 9:07

Like you said, it's the number of people who admit to having doing it. That's right.

Misty 9:14

But that's an average, so they're like, they're just, you know, surveying a bunch of people and extrapolating. I wanna know what their sample, sampling system was.

Joel 9:23

How do you think you're gonna

Misty 9:24

standing by the cookie aisle and asking people, "Um, how many cookies ate today?" And then just multiplying?

Joel 9:31

Yeah. Yeah. How are you gonna... It, well, it's...

Misty 9:37

It's not good use of statistics to do it that way. That would not be representative sampling

Joel 9:41

fair enough. 'Cause you'd just get the people who are standing in line to get cookies.

Misty 9:45

Right. And then just, you know, averaging out how many cookies they ate that day. You know, that's, that's not a good way to

Joel 9:51

Maybe it's around a, like a holiday where people eat cookies, like National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

Misty 9:57

Yes

Joel 9:57

What about how are you gonna celebrate? Do you want some ideas?

Misty 10:01

Uh, does one of them eat cookies?

Joel 10:05

One of them is bake a batch of cookies, so you could eat them yourself or share them

Misty 10:11

You could, yes.

Joel 10:12

You could give some friends cookies

Misty 10:16

You could learn about the history of cookies.

Joel 10:17

You could learn about the history of cookies, when were they invented, or you could go bakery hopping. You could try cookies from different locations

Misty 10:25

Bakery hopping. I would rather go donut hopping if I were gonna go to bakeries and eat things, but only for apple fritters, but I could not eat very many of them 'cause they're very large. But so what are you going to do, Joel?

Joel 10:38

I'm gonna make some more mini chocolate chip cookies.

Misty 10:41

Excellent.

Joel 10:42

pretty good at it

Misty 10:43

I bet you are. Practice makes perfect.

Joel 10:45

Yeah. How about you?

Misty 10:47

If there's a cookie around today, I might eat it, but that's not very likely, so... But if there is, I might choose to eat

Joel 10:58

Well, I

Misty 10:59

it. And I've already learned about... Well, I've already learned, so I did that already

Joel 11:02

There's gonna be a large percentage of people eating cookies today. That's what I've learned

Misty 11:06

Indeed. Enjoy your cookies

Joel 11:09

Mm-hmm.

Meet The Guests And Community Circles

Misty 11:24

All right. We-- I am so excited about this conversation, Joel.

Joel 11:28

Yeah. What gets you excited?

Misty 11:30

because I am think I'm gonna learn something

Joel 11:33

I, I'm definitely gonna learn something

Misty 11:35

wow. Okay. Joel just already knows he's gonna learn something. That just goes to show how much you already know maybe. Or not.

Joel 11:43

willingness, or my willingness to learn

Misty 11:45

Exactly. All right. So we're here today. I love how it just says in our little thing, "Record with Boggs and Bain." No. So we're here with Danielle Boggs and Laura Bain. They are two of our coworkers on the professional learning team. Uh, Laura is a professional learning specialist, and Danielle is newly in a new position as a customer service manager, but she's been a PLS, a professional learning specialist with us most of the time, so I, I still mostly kind of think about, of her as that, but... And they're-- Yeah. Good. They're, they're here today to talk with us about community circles. So, I know. So welcome to the podcast.

Danielle 12:28

Thanks for having us

Misty 12:29

All right, so our first question. What are Community Circles?

Joel 12:35

I was thinking the same thing

Misty 12:37

Please tell us

Danielle 12:40

Go for it, Lovelace

Laura 12:41

they are, yeah. Community circles are a restorative practice where students and teachers share thoughts on a given topic, uh, as equals in a circle. So they can be used to build relationships. They can be used to resolve conflicts. They can also be used to just create a safe learning environment. That is like our definition of a community circle

Misty 13:03

That's like the nutshell definition.

Laura 13:06

Exactly

Misty 13:07

Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna tease that apart a little bit. When you say they are a restorative practice, can you just help me and maybe some of our other listeners understand, like when you say that, what does that mean exactly? I've heard this before and I'm just like, tell us more.

Laura 13:24

Absolutely. I feel like Danielle has had experience using it in her classroom as a restorative practice, so I'm gonna let her kind of answer that one

Danielle 13:34

I probably don't have the, uh, technical definition for what this is, but in my experience using it, kind of like Laura said it's If you think about in education and typically the systems that students have interacted with, teachers have interacted with, and have been, uh, forced into some of those have, excuse me, broken some trust and potentially put up some barriers for fostering a trusting, safe environment. So I, I utilize it in terms of, and think about it in terms of it's restoring a community, and it's restoring a safe environment for everybody that's, that's in that space. Um, and for me, that has always been-- Well, not always. It's, I've primarily done it in a classroom space, but I've also done it in a building teacher-level space as well.

Why A Circle And A Talking Piece

Joel 14:33

Mm-hmm. And, and, uh, why, why a circle? I guess, like, uh, is it the physical of a circle that you're looking at each other? Is it

Danielle 14:46

Yeah. I, I've actually a lesson learned is by failing and not doing it in a circle in terms of say you're in a, in a, in a room and some students are sitting on desks, some are on chairs, some are over here, there's like corner. Idea of the circle is that everybody sees each other and that it's basically you're all at eye level with one another creating that equal footing and ground for, for everybody in the space kind of to decrease power dynamics, potential power dynamics that are usually present in classrooms between teachers and students.

Misty 15:22

Yeah, that idea con- connects with status, right? That we talk about. That, that perceived status, actual status, lots of things that can come across. So, okay, so we're sitting in a circle. What are we gonna do? Like, I mean, just like help me, walk me through, if like, okay, I'm a new teacher, I wanna do a community circle. What, what, how would I, how would I get it started? What should I do? What are some like tips and, I mean, you've already given us one potential pitfall.

Danielle 15:53

Mm-hmm.

Misty 15:53

us out.

Laura 15:55

Yeah, I think an important tip is passing some kind of object, so like a talking stick or I know Danielle loves to use like a little stuffed animal. And whoever is holding that is the person who is talking, and we're all listening to that speaker. And then when they are done or when they are ready to move on, they just pass that talking stick in the same direction. So we just keep passing it around the circle till it gets back to the f- original speaker, the first person

Misty 16:26

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Danielle 16:28

The other, other kind of pitfall lesson learned as well is ideally randomizing people to sit in a random order so you're not sitting next to your bestie that you maybe don't necessarily focus the best with or might not feel-- or you might feel like, "Hey, oh, I'm gonna look at them," and think like, "Oh, is it okay for me to answer?" And it shouldn't be about that. It should just be about the space for everybody. So yeah, having something to pass, sitting randomly in a circle. Something-- I was never trained in this, but there's like full-on trainings with regards to this, and I've seen and heard and read about like in the beginning when you're doing it, having like something in the center so that like, that people are contributing to or looking at, and it, it's almost... I don't know what, I don't know how best to, to describe that space. But I never had the time to really do that, so the way that I did that is one of the first community circles that I did was like a show and tell community circle where like kids would bring in like, "This is something that's important to me, and this is why," and they placed it in the middle. And so then they kind of always like thought about that every time we went back to community circles, even though it wasn't there.

Misty 17:47

Mm-hmm. I'd like a couple things about that. Like, one, I like, it's like if you're doing it as one of the beginning community circles, it's a little bit safer topic, right? It's something that like, "Oh, great, I'm sharing something about myself, and I'm-- if that's important to me," and it's, it's not as maybe like, "Oh no, there's been this problem in our classroom, and now we have to talk about it," and that has a lot of emotions and so on. We can start with something that feels a little safer to talk about and builds connection, right? 'Cause now I see what other people is, what is important to them and what they've brought and why. And also, I like when you're talking about like putting it into the center and it's like building a community thing, right? That, an actual sort of, you know, collection that's created by our community of our classroom whether it physically exists there in the future or not, you're building it together. So it's sort of building that community on several levels.

Agreements That Keep Circles Safe

Joel 18:46

Is there, is there an ideal size for a circle? 'Cause I, just from what I'm hearing Misty just said and all that sort of a thing, like I could see it working in a small group. It feels like classroom agreements into a big group. It feels like a lot of mix of all the stuff that we talk about when we build communities. So I'm wondering if a, a team of three or four is too small for an idea like this?

Danielle 19:09

I've always done it with my whole class. So whether that ranges in size from like one of my smaller classes of 20 up to like 32, 34 kids. I've also done it with staff in a group of... Started in a group of like 60 and then broke down into I think three circles after we like initially started. So I would, I would think that it would be better for whole group 'cause you don't want, again, those same like potential status, power

Misty 19:41

Mm-hmm.

Danielle 19:42

to, to impact how it goes otherwise. And the goal is for them getting to know each other. And despite them being in school together for how many years, a lot of times they still don't even know the person's name next to them.

Misty 19:54

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I imagine, are there, are there some structures and things that as you're setting this up with your classroom that you kind of begin with? Mean, I like the, you know, the ideas of like, okay, we're gonna do them routinely, right? So, and something we're gonna share as opposed to only when there's a problem you wanna fix or something going on. Like do you have the students always like start with their name? Do you always go around the circle? Do you have sometimes go across the circle or pass the thing in different ways? I'm curious about different ways of doing it.

Danielle 20:27

I, in my experience, attempted an across the circle thing once that went horribly wrong in terms of just be- some students just being excluded then, which kind of is counterintuitive to the point in a community circle. So kind of the agreements being with like that talking piece that Laura talked about is like typically going in one direction. Students have the option, this kind of talk, introducing every single time what are some of the agreements. You have the option that you could pass. We're not going back and forth. You're-- If you pass it, you're waiting till it comes back around to you.

Misty 21:10

Does there ever, like, limits on how long a person can talk?

Danielle 21:15

One of the agreements is like, what is it? Uh

Laura 21:18

is just say enough. Is that the one you're thinking of, Danielle? Yeah, just say enough

Misty 21:24

Mm-hmm. Got it. So building some agreements at the beginning is also an important part of this?

Danielle 21:30

Yeah. So initially when I did it, when I, I started doing it in the very beginning, like day one of the school year, and I would just say like, "Hey, these are what they are." And as things came up, we would like revisit and talk about them. But like you were talking about, like it needs to be super safe, especially when you don't know each other. So the beginning of the year was like, say your name and whatever, like a name game type thing. An animal that starts with the, the letter of your name, and then everybody went around and then it would be like, say your name and like they said their name like seven times in the first, the first circle. Say your name and something that makes you happy. Say your name... So it was just like very surface level, easy to access entry points for, for students so that they're used to the structure. And then trying to, to in the first community circles, like add on maybe a, a new level of question like, "Tell me about a time in math that you had a great experience. Tell me about a time in math where you had a not so great experience." And some interesting things start to come out.

Joel 22:40

I watched that movie Count It Out and, and one of the scenes, you're reminding me of the name thing, and it was in the circle, and you thank the person that passed it to you, and then you said the person's name on the other side as well. So you were not just saying your name, but you were saying others' names. That was kinda cool.

Misty 23:02

So then, so I'm sensing this sort of like, did you do it as like a, just a routine, like, particular day of the week or something like that at the beginning so that you could build up the idea of it before then at some point like, "Oh no, now something's happened and we need a community cir- circle to sort of address this issue"?

Danielle 23:26

I, in the beginning of the year, like I said, I started on the first day with one. And then we did like a, what did I call it? A show and tell one within the first couple of weeks of school. And then after that, I tried to do at least once a month based on maybe there was some random day that was a little off structure from all of the, the normal things. But I tried to do it at least once a month. But then if something did come up, then it would just be for that class whenever it was needed, uh, type thing.

Laura 24:07

I never did them in my classroom. Community circles were something that was new to me when I started working with Inspiring Connections teachers. But there is a district that uses Inspiring Connections, and they have a longer class period. And every class period, they-- some of their teachers will start with a community circle to share the door question. And if it's a Monday, they may add on like, "What's something you wanna share from the weekend?" And then they also end in a, a community circle, like a closing circle, to talk about closure as a whole class. They have a longer class period, but I just think it's really cool to see them do that every day. They definitely have that routine.

Misty 24:45

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Joel 24:46

That's cool. Do you no- do you notice anything maybe from hearing or seeing their experiences with their students and maybe doing a circle with adults? Is there a difference there?

Laura 25:00

I think there are slight differences. I think adults do a really great job of listening to the speaker, and sometimes I've noticed middle schoolers struggle with that a little bit more. But I think it was really cool that they give their students that opportunity to share with the whole class, like every day, "Here's my answer to the question." So pretty neat

Danielle 25:22

I'm so jealous that they have a longer class period. Yeah, I only had 47-minute class periods, so that's why I only did it the once a month because I wish I had that kind of structure.

Misty 25:31

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Repairing Conflict With Restorative Circles

Misty 25:34

Yeah, and I'm just, I'm thinking about like, I love the, you know, the sharing pieces and the building the classroom safety and, and that psychological safety. Um, and then I'm thinking about like when there's a, when there's an issue, like something's come up and students are upset about, then do you end up, do you go around just like more than one time? Like how do you, how do you sort of structure that so that it feels, I don't know. Like I- I'm sensing this like so that it feels like there's a sense of resolution or, you know, like, but maybe it's less about an agenda, like where my brain goes, and more about just everyone being heard around the issue.

Danielle 26:12

My brain goes to an agenda too. So the first time I, I needed to shift from doing something that was like community building to now like

Misty 26:20

Mm-hmm.

Danielle 26:21

something has gone awry. And it wasn't necessarily in the community something has gone awry. It's that within our classroom things were not going well. So I reached out to our grade level counselor and our social worker that had originally introduced and came into my class and modeled community circles with me to say like, "Okay, I need help.

Misty 26:44

Mm-hmm

Danielle 26:44

Help me figure out how to structure this time." And that was extremely beneficial to me because I was also, uh, a party in this conflict, so being neutral was very challenging, uh, in that situation. And so they, they kind of still came in with an agenda, and it was, you know, briefly in the beginning, like, "This is what we're gonna talk about. By the end of this, we wanna have some ideas brainstormed for what might be potential solutions." but we started off with like, "Here, what's a word? How does this make you feel?" Like what... Somebody explained what was going on, and then they, everybody had like, you know, a one-word reaction with

Misty 27:29

Mm-hmm.

Danielle 27:29

some feelings words shared because as an adult, I'm not great with feelings words, let alone trying to teach middle schoolers how to use more than just like mad and sad and things like that.

Misty 27:40

Mm-hmm.

Danielle 27:41

So everybody was able to share some of that, and then people were kind of able to... It was still the same structure of going around, and they shared multiple times. And then at the end, they, uh, the, the last couple of rounds were essentially like, "What, what would you like to see happen? What are some potential solutions?" So everybody was sharing. There's a poster. Everything's being recorded. No judgment. Just student language of what they're saying. And then in the last round it was kind of sharing like, "Okay, this is great, but this isn't even in, like, in the wheelhouse or, like, in the ballpark of what we even can do, and here's why."

Misty 28:24

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm

Danielle 28:25

And so we were able to eliminate some things, and then we talked about like, "Okay, what can we try now? What might we try later? Um, and what do we, how do we wanna come back to this?" So that was kind of how we left that conversation.

Misty 28:37

It's, uh, I like that. It's a very kind of a mix of open sharing and ideas and also, like, moving towards some resolution, some, you know, restoring of the community p- peace and how we can move forward together. I like that. Yeah. There's so many things coming up in my brain about like connecting with feelings and, you know, what feels safe to say or not, and all of those pieces of, you know, the equity and equality in the s- in the, in the circle and everyone being included. It's just a lot of really beautiful pieces there.

Why Belonging Matters For Learning

Joel 29:11

It makes me think about also, a, a common comment w- might be that I'm in a math classroom, I don't have enough time to teach curriculum, things like that. But bottom line is you're in a classroom

Misty 29:25

Mm-hmm.

Joel 29:26

and we're all there together, and there are other things that go on in a classroom other than math

Misty 29:34

I remember so many times when my middle schoolers would come in and they are just, like, upset about something. Doesn't matter, whatever. They're just like, and they might, and it might not be, like, sad or mad upset. It might be happy or whatever. They're just all like, they're having some emotional thing, and I remember thinking, "Okay, but now you gotta do math." And then it's like always like, yeah, that's not possible. The emotional thing just doesn't go away because it's time to do math, you know? So

Danielle 30:00

And it gets back to the whole idea of like, students aren't gonna remember the math, they're gonna remember the people. And so if you give them good people to remember and experiences to remember, my students, whenever I gave feedback about community circles, would say things like, "I learned about other people during our circles, our classmates, our teacher. I learned about conflicts and solving problems, and I know the strengths and weaknesses of my classmates." You know, sometimes for middle schoolers, that means I'm gonna poke at it a little bit, but you talk about that.

Misty 30:30

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Danielle 30:32

just the idea that students had a space that they were able to express and share that they, like, felt respected and that no one was talking over them, and they could-- they put that into words in their reflections, um, was something I did not feel when I was in school. So the why do you do this and why is it important? I mean, that's it.

Misty 30:52

That's awesome. Yeah, people don't learn where they don't feel whole.

Danielle 30:58

Mm-hmm.

Misty 30:59

Awesome.

Laura 30:59

Yeah

Misty 31:00

Well, thank you Danielle and Laura for coming on the podcast and sharing your ideas around community circles and what you've done and what you've seen. We really appreciate it. And I think the big takeaway for me is like, if you're not sure about doing community circles, just try it Yeah. Awesome. Thank you

Danielle 31:22

You're very welcome.

Wrap Up And Next Episode Tease

Misty 31:30

So that is all we have time for on this episode of the More Math For More People podcast. If you are interested in connecting with us on social media, find our links in the podcast description. And the music for the podcast was created by Julius H and can be found on pixabay.com. So thank you very much, Julius. Join us in two weeks for the next episode of More Math For More People. What day will that be, Joel?

Joel 31:57

It'll be August 18th, Serendipity Day. Serendipity Day. It's serendipitous that I am here telling you, uh, about Serendipity Day perhaps, but August 18th, we celebrate those moments in chance, moments in nature, celebrate humanity the things that are all around us. If we would only stop to take notice or pay attention, we would all see those serendipitous moments. So I can't, uh, wait to talk about the serendipity that Misty and I have shared, and we look forward to seeing you on August the 18th