The staff at Blair understand the importance of creating a learning community where all of our students feel safe, valued, and connected. We have an established culture and common language around Blair Cares for Self, Others, and Place. Through activities at the school, we have explored the concept of "identity", where gaining an understanding of self-identity might help students understand how and why we care for self, others, and our place.  We also want to foster reciprocal relationships and build an understanding of care and responsibility to each other and a sense of belonging as a school community.

Understanding and sharing our own story, including the inside and outside (less visible and more visible aspects) of our identity, can help us connect to others' stories.  As we learn more about each other, we begin to care more about each other, and thus are more inclined to support each other through our collective learning experiences.

The students at Blair created a visual representation of themselves through their "Inside-Outside Identity" story.  Students were invited to share aspects about themselves, such as important belongings that they might have, activities they participate in, special skills, achievements or accomplishments, and even hopes or wishes for the future.

Students had opportunities to share and discuss their inside-outside identity visual with peers through prompts such as "tell me more about your ...", "I also like ...", "why is that important to you?", "How does this affect your thinking, feeling, and doing?"

We appreciated that when someone else is speaking, they are sharing a part of who they are, so we need to show respect and show whole-body listening.