Beginning a school year is always an act rich with meaning. It is a moment when we reorganize ourselves, welcome new perspectives, revisit our foundations, and reaffirm what sustains our educational practice. At be.Living, the opening of 2026 was marked by a professional development program dedicated to the theme “Welcoming, Listening, and Teaching Practice,” carried out with teachers from Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education as an intentional effort to align practices, relationships, and choices with the school’s Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP).
Gabriela Fernandes, Pedagogical Coordinator of Elementary Education at be.Living, explains that the theme of the professional development emerged from a need identified by the leadership team, especially after recent years of in-depth work reviewing and consolidating the school’s Political-Pedagogical Project. “Our school has carried out, in recent years, a very in-depth process of work around the PPP, a project grounded in affection. For our school, affection is the guiding thread of knowledge. That is why it is essential to dedicate time to revisiting this theme with our teachers.”
Gabriela Fernandes emphasizes that teaching is a living, dynamic, and demanding practice. Teachers’ daily work involves planning, implementation, reflection, and constant decision-making, much of which takes place beyond the school environment. In this context, when an institution defines pillars such as affection, welcoming, and agency, it also assumes the responsibility of sustaining these principles through continuous professional development. When a school has foundational pillars that support its Pedagogical Political Project, it is essential to revisit these subjects and provide professional development for teachers. Affection is always at the center of our focus, because it is what anchors our Political-Pedagogical Project (PPP).
The coordinator points out that any professional development effort that upholds the school’s foundations needs to take multiple dimensions into account. There is an institutional dimension, which ensures that the theme is addressed in professional development; a curricular dimension, which guarantees space for these pillars to be realized within the curriculum; and a personal dimension, which relates to each educator’s individual professional journey. “Training meets both an institutional and curricular demand. It reinforces for the team the importance the school places on affection and welcoming in all teaching practices and in the work of the entire educational staff.”
The first meeting of the training process was conducted by guest educator Rosa Silvia Lopes Chaves, who introduced affection as a structuring dimension of teaching action.
Throughout the reflections, listening—an intentional pedagogical action that requires presence and openness—occupied a central place. “We call it ‘active listening’, because we need to be physically present to listen to the child. It is not just about listening and responding, but allowing us to understand the paths the child is following in their learning process”, she explains.
This listening is essential for the school to fulfill one of its core responsibilities: ensuring learning progressions. In groups characterized by the movement and noise inherent to childhood, individual listening becomes indispensable. “Teachers who do not listen to children’s demands cannot individually follow the learning process. It is from this listening that we think about the interventions we will make in order to walk alongside the child throughout their school journey,” says Gabriela Fernandes, noting that at be.Living this journey begins in the first year of life and continues through the age of eleven.
The professional development program also emphasized the importance of educators perceiving themselves, listening to themselves, and recognizing their own affective positioning. Being with children requires genuine presence, emotional availability, and inner organization. “Teachers must be prepared to be present with the children. We need to have our planning organized and be prepared for the day, but above all, we need to be present with body and soul—making eye contact, listening actively, and communicating in a constructive way. This is essential to the learning process,” says Camila.
With continuity in mind, the professional development program was conceived as a launching encounter. From this starting point, the Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education coordination teams designed a formative process that will accompany the staff throughout the entire year. Among the concrete actions already implemented is the didactic contract, through which the entire team commits to being present, communicating, and listening.
Gabriela emphasizes that this commitment needs to be collective. The school is a shared environment, and children’s experiences must be coherent in all spaces. “It is no use for the child to live an experience of listening and constructive communication only within the classroom and not experience it in collective moments, such as in the park or at lunch. It is essential that teaching practice be a collective effort.”, she explains.
According to her, pedagogical practice emerges from the integration of theory and practice. The educational theories that underpin teacher development are constantly connected to everyday school life, guiding lesson planning and classroom organization. To ensure that these principles remain alive, the coordination team holds biweekly one-on-one meetings with teachers, revisiting agreements and strengthening foundational professional development work, in addition to weekly meetings with the entire team, which collectively sustain the Political-Pedagogical Project.
During the days of professional development, many meaningful initiatives unfolded, including activities carried out with each team and the experience “Beyond the School Walls,” which featured a visit to the exhibition “Body and Manifesto” at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB). “All of these experiences invited teachers to reflect on affection, welcoming, and listening, while deepening their ability to empathize and see the world from another’s perspective. Attending the exhibition, for instance, which brings together narratives about the Black body in the world, encouraged a deeper exercise of empathy and sensitivity. When we are able to make this empathetic shift, we are able to welcome the other’s needs with greater calm and humility.,” says Gabriela.
A particularly memorable moment of the training was when educators reconnected with their own childhood. They were invited to revisit who they were as children by bringing photographs and sharing memories from those years. “We reconnect with that time of childhood so it can remain alive in our memory and so that we can offer the best possible welcoming to the childhood that arrives with the children,” explains Gabriela Fernandes.
Thus, by opening 2026 with a professional development program dedicated to welcoming, listening, and teaching practice, be.Living reaffirms affection as the foundation of learning, teaching, and living together. An affection that is built in everyday life, through presence, attentive listening, and the shared responsibility of educating children in their full humanity.