The first day:
It is important that right from the start of the year all of your students feel that they belong in their class and that it is a safe place to learn, make mistakes, and interact with others. While a sense of safety will take more than a day and will come with time, especially with young students, the feeling that each student belongs to a classroom is an important start to every year and can be facilitated by even the smallest things. Ahead of the students arriving in class, displaying everyone’s name on a bulletin board and designating a desk to each student is a great way for students to come on the first day and shake the feeling that they are in the wrong class or don’t belong. This can be furthered by activities that get the students interacting with each other, getting to know who is in their class and how to be part of the group.
Throughout the year:
-Have spare materials for any unexpected students, because they can struggle with belonging even more, especially if they come part way through the year. Giving students a welcome to school packet with “perfect, I’ve been expecting you” can ease the transition into a new and possibly established classroom community. Be sure to introduce the student to the class in a positive way that spins the new arrival as someone who is joining our class, not here is a new student.
-A great academic and social activity you can set up for students is simply working in groups. You can let them chose their groups, but to minimize cliques and help foster a bigger classroom community, setting up groups challenges your students to learn to work together, getting to know who their classmates are possibly for the first time. Groups can be used for reading groups, presentation groups, discussion groups, etc. It is easier to see others as part of your class if you have worked with them before.
-Brain breaks are a widely used tactic for teachers to refocus their students and help them get through the long hours of school. There are many resources available that are more individual, but another way to approach it is participating in team building games or exercises. These activities are usually geared towards making each member of a group participate and work with others in order for the whole group to be successful. Given enough time to do it, this could make a huge impact on the morale for the week as well as strengthen the classroom community, showcasing the value of each member of the class.
End of the year:
Knowing you succeeded in creating and fostering a positive and productive learning environment will not mean every student is positive, productive, and learning at all times. The reality is, teaching is working with people, and no person is perfect. However, reaching the goal of a successful classroom management will have great impacts. Your students will have gained communication skills having worked so much with each other, which will come through in class discussions and even the questions they ask. As the year continues, forming groups should become easier as students become more comfortable in whatever group they are in and can start work right away. Lastly, if you want to see your students know each other, you can challenge volunteers to participate in a fun last day of class game to remember everyone’s name and possibly something about all or some of them, just to show the students how far you have seen them come.
It is important that right from the start of the year all of your students feel that they belong in their class and that it is a safe place to learn, make mistakes, and interact with others. While a sense of safety will take more than a day and will come with time, especially with young students, the feeling that each student belongs to a classroom is an important start to every year and can be facilitated by even the smallest things. Ahead of the students arriving in class, displaying everyone’s name on a bulletin board and designating a desk to each student is a great way for students to come on the first day and shake the feeling that they are in the wrong class or don’t belong. This can be furthered by activities that get the students interacting with each other, getting to know who is in their class and how to be part of the group.
Throughout the year:
-Have spare materials for any unexpected students, because they can struggle with belonging even more, especially if they come part way through the year. Giving students a welcome to school packet with “perfect, I’ve been expecting you” can ease the transition into a new and possibly established classroom community. Be sure to introduce the student to the class in a positive way that spins the new arrival as someone who is joining our class, not here is a new student.
-A great academic and social activity you can set up for students is simply working in groups. You can let them chose their groups, but to minimize cliques and help foster a bigger classroom community, setting up groups challenges your students to learn to work together, getting to know who their classmates are possibly for the first time. Groups can be used for reading groups, presentation groups, discussion groups, etc. It is easier to see others as part of your class if you have worked with them before.
-Brain breaks are a widely used tactic for teachers to refocus their students and help them get through the long hours of school. There are many resources available that are more individual, but another way to approach it is participating in team building games or exercises. These activities are usually geared towards making each member of a group participate and work with others in order for the whole group to be successful. Given enough time to do it, this could make a huge impact on the morale for the week as well as strengthen the classroom community, showcasing the value of each member of the class.
End of the year:
Knowing you succeeded in creating and fostering a positive and productive learning environment will not mean every student is positive, productive, and learning at all times. The reality is, teaching is working with people, and no person is perfect. However, reaching the goal of a successful classroom management will have great impacts. Your students will have gained communication skills having worked so much with each other, which will come through in class discussions and even the questions they ask. As the year continues, forming groups should become easier as students become more comfortable in whatever group they are in and can start work right away. Lastly, if you want to see your students know each other, you can challenge volunteers to participate in a fun last day of class game to remember everyone’s name and possibly something about all or some of them, just to show the students how far you have seen them come.