Circles are a container for so much that Morningside Center does. From my first day as the new writer at Morningside, it was clear that they are foundational to our work, but as someone who had never been in a Circle I really needed to know: exactly what is a Circle? And why are they so foundational? Thus began my journey to learn how Morningside practices, teaches and continues to improve how we facilitate Circles across SEL, restorative practices and racial equity.
I started by experiencing how we teach educators about Circles through our 5-day Tier 1 DOE training for this summer. I and the others in my cohort were guided by Staff Developer, Iris Laurencio. I was thrilled to be among more than 740 educators trained this summer alone.
Following the training, I interviewed Iris, and two teachers who participated in my cohort—both of whom were already using Circles in their classes, just 11 days into the school year. I wanted to hear a variety of experiences. And share them with you.
Circles are a process for gathering any group of people to build community by mutually getting to know one another through sharing. Circles begin with an opening ceremony; are followed by sharing on prompts or other activities—using a talking piece to preserve voice and attention (only the person with the talking piece speaks); and conclude with a closing ceremony. Morningside trains Circle-keepers how to hold and keep safe these Circles so that meaningful sharing can facilitate each individual getting to know and be known by others. We provide training, coaching and curricula in holding Circles that nurture community, care and belonging. At MSC we often say, it’s not therapy but it is therapeutic.
While the steps and skeleton of Circles may look or feel here deceptively simple, having experienced Tier 1 training myself for six hours per day for a full week, I am here to bear witness that the only thing I could compare to that time was the few months after my son was born: “time out of time,” when I was intensely bonding with my child in a safe and cocooned space. Sacred.
Thus, we invite you to travel with us on a deeper exploration of Circles with Iris, two teachers, and finally myself, to begin to answer What is a Circle?
My interview with Iris was deep and wide—so begin here with us, and expect to hear more from
Iris in a few weeks.
Iris, how did you get started facilitating Circles?
I started doing Circles without knowing I was doing Circles. By Christmas break of my first year teaching four teachers had quit and I was brought in as the fifth Spanish teacher. I was ready to take on the world. And the reality of teaching was nothing like I had expected or read about or studied about or seen during my student teaching. Nothing had prepared me for the classroom.
So, it was chaos—I didn’t teach anything. Lessons were spent trying to just control the classroom and manage the students. And I just had this moment where—it was even just for my own mental health, “I need to do something different, because what I’m doing now is not working. They are obviously not interested in conjugating or learning words in Spanish.” So, I literally had the class sit on the floor and I just asked them questions about their lives.
I knew one thing: that teenagers, they are interested in themselves. One thing that people care about is talking about themselves on some level. And, so, I just literally had them sit in a circle, and started asking them questions about just pretty shallow things, about family, “do you have siblings,” “what kind of pizza do you like, what are you looking forward to this weekend?”
This is something that came naturally to me, to sit together and get to know each other, and I knew that saying, “people don’t care what you know until they know you care,” I knew that was true. And I guess I was going to put it to the test. And I did care. I did care about these people in my class! I was just authentic and genuine in my curiosity about them.
And, slowly—very, very slowly but surely—things started to shift in the classroom: they would circle up by themselves! I started to take what I was learning about them in the Circles into worksheets and Spanish lessons. And then the Spanish lessons were interesting to them because it was about them. That’s how I ended up bringing in the academic portion. But first I had to get to know them.
When I was first teaching, I was sick to my stomach every day, anxious about the class and how it would go.
I was also getting nervous that administration would walk by and see me ‘not teaching.’ I just thought I was a horrible teacher because I was doing nothing that I had learned or read about.
I really thought that teaching wasn’t for me. I was completely devastated, feeling like, “oh my gosh, I spent so much time and money and effort and energy trying to become a teacher” and—this is what I thought, “I’m not even good at it.”
At this point I didn’t have the language—there was no language to identify what I was doing. It was just something that came naturally to me, but I had never seen it done before so I automatically assumed that I was just wrong. That I was not good.
So, I quit teaching and joined the Peace Corps and where I was selected as an education volunteer even though I was trying to get away from teaching! I taught computer skills in English and female empowerment groups. But the basis of everything I ever did moving forward was just centering students and understanding them and really being authentic and showing them that I care about who they are.
And that’s always been the backdrop of all the work I’ve done in education, whether it’s the training I do now, or what I was doing as a Peace Corps volunteer, and moving to Indonesia for the State Department, teaching at a university. Even when I was teaching English for academic purposes, caring about my students, getting to know them was a backdrop for my work. I still centered their lives and their stories and who they are, and I brought that into what we did.
But I didn’t know that I was doing a ‘thing’ until I came into Morningside Center. When I first started with MSC, I was very scripted. I wanted to hit all the learning objectives and goals. Then as I got comfortable with the material and myself, I was like, “wait a second, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, since the beginning of my career as an educator!”
Then it just clicked for me. Now, as a facilitator I still have our goals and objectives in mind, but I feel more attuned to the group and dynamics. I let myself be led by what’s happening and what the group needs.
How do you think you came to this natural way with Circles?
I actually had a close group of neighborhood friends (in elementary and middle school), and when we would get into conflict, we would say “we need to circle up,” and then “this is what’s bothering us.” We sat in a circle and talked it out. So, it’s a way of being that comes naturally to me, that is so human.
What do you notice people really respond to in a Tier I training?
The cultural share—people will really go far! Some people bring in food, some people dress up, or bring in big works, works of art! I love to see people be proud of their culture! And then I like to do a round of connections where people share what they connected to during the culture share. Leaving room for connections is beautiful because you get to see two people from what you think are opposite cultures say “yeah, me too,” and connect—I love to see that!
I also like to do the Circle of appreciation. People like that, they see that someone notices what they contributed.
And what do participants seem to need the most?
They come in with so much overwhelm. Students are dealing with so much and there is so little that teachers can do in the face of it all. But I think just witnessing our students is important; seeing that they are good, wise and powerful. That something is enough, that is power! And participants seeing that transforms it.
We create a container for teachers to be seen and heard: Circles! It’s not therapy, but we are creating a space to make a student know that they matter and their story matters! That’s what Circles are—creating a space for people to be seen! So, you have to allow yourself to be seen too, you have to be a clear mirror and real presence so students know they are seen.
Witnessing is a sacred act. Not having the need to change anyone but just witness.
Thank you for joining us on this journey with Staff Developer Iris, and watch for more Circle experiences from two teachers to come.
Circles are an experience—and we invite you and your communities to join us at Morningside Center!
