Caring Classroom Communities

I’m not much of a stat tracker when it comes to this blog, but I can’t help but notice that recently I’m seeing a major spike in hits for this May 2007 post about building a classroom community.  I find that extremely encouraging — that people, presumably teachers getting ready to start a new school year sometime in the next month, are searching around Google for ideas on how to make their classrooms into warm, caring places.

Here are a few ideas, some of which I’ve expounded on before (in which case a link is provided), on how to build a caring class community:

1.  Hold daily class meetings.  Use this time to give your students time to share about their lives, play team-building games, have discussions about issues that arise in your classroom, compliment each other, say the pledge of allegiance, sing songs… whatever!  Just do something to build a sense of “us” and give your students some ownership and voice in your classroom.

2.  If you are going to use praise, praise effort instead of talent.  I personally make a BIG deal about two things each fall: the first student that puts forth a ton of effort on an assignment, and the first student that I see doing something kind for another student.  I want to show the students right away that I value those two traits. 

3.  Focus on the intrinsic, and drop the extrinsic rewards and punishments.  Nothing will spoil a classroom community faster than writing names on the board, using a divisive and competitive “table tallies” reward system, or lobbing threats at your students.

4.  Be real.  Your fake, high-pitched voice isn’t going to last all year, and the kids know it.  If you want to create a caring classroom community, you have to actually care about the students.  If you don’t, don’t bother trying to devise new tricks to mask this fact.  Consider switching to a field where you work with inanimate objects instead.

5.  Don’t make assumptions.  You can’t assume that your students will automatically know how to show the kindness you are promoting.  Use role-play.  Taking 15 minutes to discuss what may seem like basic or obvious scenarios is not a waste.  “What should we do if a classmate drops a tub of markers all over the floor?”  “What should we do if someone gets hurt or sick at recess?”  “What should we do if two people want the same cool new book off our classroom bookshelf?”  “What should you do if something good happens to someone else (and not to you personally)?”  “Does being first in line really matter?”

Best wishes as you work to make your classroom a place where children learn kindness as well as academics.

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