In my classroom, there are several things that create a sense of classroom community. The class and the teacher came up with “beliefs” together. They brainstormed several and the teacher wrote them on the board. They then did something called a “consensogram” where the teacher gives each person three sticky notes. Each student then goes to the board and places each sticky note on a different belief and they choose their top three choices. After all of the students finished doing this, the teacher found the top six beliefs that were chosen and those made up the classroom beliefs. They included: listen to the speaker, strive for peaceful solutions, treat others like you would like to be treated, respect the way others think, follow the fuller 4 (respectful, safe, responsible, productive), and be kind to all and smile.
Another way that a classroom community is created is the teacher gives the students a time at the beginning of the day to share announcements. During this time the students may share what they did during the weekend or yesterday afternoon, or what they are looking forward to, etc. It gives the other students a chance to get to know their classmates better. In my classroom, there are also job duties posted and students get to rotate having a duty such as line leader, recycler, errand runner, etc.
My teacher also does something called “Mystery Motivator” where she targets a behavior that the students are struggling with such as talking too much and has a contest between the student and the teacher. If the students get 80% then they receive a mystery motivator prize of their choice.
The school that I am at also creates a sense of community by having “Fuller Family Night” where the school serves dinner to the parents and then the children go and do activities while the parents go to informational sessions that the teachers present. The school also has Fun Friday where the students are rewarded for having good behavior all week. Lastly, the school has the “SAY” program. This is where NCSU sends mentors to do activities with the children from needy backgrounds.
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I think the idea this post mentioned about the "beliefs" rather than rules was really interesting. It used the same idea that we talked about in class about having the students create the rules but just by switching the word rules with belief it gives it a better feel and I think it would cause the students to have even more ownership to the "rule."
ReplyDeleteI also liked the idea of having some students talk about any announcements they want to share because it can alleviate endless chatter that happens at the beginning of class. It also helps add to the sense of community that all classrooms strive to have. My only concern is time, I would probably choose two or three a day not the whole class.
I really like how the students were able to come up with the classroom beliefs, because when the students are involved in creating rules or beliefs then they are more inclined to follow those rules. I also really like how your teacher allows for the students to do their own announcements. It gives the students something to be excited about and it also allows for the students to get to know each other better as well as the teacher. The classroom jobs is also a great idea, my SBTE does this as well in her classroom and it really gives the feeling of responsiblity and a connection to the clasroom.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the classroom beliefs. If students are able to come up with rules, or beliefs for themselves, then they are more likely to follow them. I also really like how your teacher lets the students share an announcement if they would like too. Children have a lot that they do, and want to talk about it. If you do that in a time where they can tell everyone, then maybe it will cut down on talking during learning time because everyone will already know their exciting news.
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