Getting to know your school and the communities it serves

What is this practice?
No matter your level of familiarity with your school placement and the communities it serves, knowing communities as a teacher is different. Inquiring into your school and its surrounding neighborhoods from the perspective of a teacher will give you a head start at the beginning of the school year. You can find valuable information from publicly available data, the school’s website or other school-related resources, or by visiting and talking with people.

Why is it important?

The work of teaching is strongly influenced by context. Knowing this context will help you do numerous important things—connect with students and colleagues, search for and find resources, contextualize your experiences and other information (like policies and regulations), and more. Most centrally, it will help you make your teaching relevant for your students, as you cannot anticipate how the learners in front of you will respond to ideas or points of view you bring up unless you literally understand “where they are coming from.”

Where to start?

First of all, find out what communities and neighborhoods your school serves. Then think about what you already know about the school and the surrounding area and try to generate “authentic” questions—those that you, students, families, or community members would actually want answered. Next, seek answers! Do you know people who live in the area? Whom could you ask for information or stories? What data are publicly available? Follow your curiosity and the tips below.

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