Here is a collection of other resources and ideas you can use to help foster community and connections in the classroom!
During one of the conversations I had with a remarkable teacher who is endlessly dedicated to her students, she shared with me some of the ways she nurtures her classroom’s community. Here are a couple of her ideas:
Communal Journals:
In her classroom, she has blank journals with different labels, such as The Travel Journal, The Grief Journal, and The Dream Journal. These journals have been in her grade 5 classroom for years, and are there for students to add entries to as they choose. This is an entirely optional activity that is not marked or graded at all. This teacher reports that students get excited to add into a book that belonged to the class before them, and will be passed onto the next. Because the journals have such personal themes, she also tells me that it is a way for her to get to know her students better by reading their entries.
Hug, High-five, Handshake, or Pass
Another way this teacher connects with her students is by implementing a weekly “greeting of choice” exit on Fridays during dismissal. Every Friday, at the end of the school day, she has all of her students line up at the door and dismisses them with their choice of a hug, high-five, handshake, or a pass. This is an entirely consensual routine, where students have complete autonomy in what amount of human physical contact they feel comfortable with.
Here are a few other ideas that you can use to build a safe, trusting classroom community:
Learn Student’s Names
This may sound simple and obvious, but the impact of using a student’s name has a much greater impact than you would expect. Calling your students by their name does more than get their attention, but it can actually help them feel that their individuality is acknowledged, and their place as a welcome student is confirmed. Check this out if you’d like to learn more:
Learning so many names at a time can be hard! Here is a link to some games that you can play in your class to help learn everyone’s names:
35 Fun Name Games To Try With Your New Class This Year
Collaborative Agreements for Classroom Norms
Instead of stating and enforcing classroom rules and expectations, you can include your students in the conversation. Have a class discussion about what they need to feel safe and supported, what respect and kindness look like, and what needs to happen in a classroom to make its dynamics flow. By allowing students to have a say in setting these boundaries, it can help them feel that their voice and needs are heard and respected. It can also encourage them to comply with the class expectations if they had a hand in setting them. For more information:
Develop Classroom Agreements with Learners
Fairness and Consistency
One of the most important factors in making a child feel safe and secure, is making sure they feel that they are seen as an equal to everyone else. Classroom management is essential in curating a safe environment, but inconsistency of management styles from one teacher can make students feel that they are being singled out or that they are unliked. It is just as important, if not more, that the teacher sticks to the set boundaries in the classroom as the students. Here is some more information about why this is important, and how to be fair and consistent in your management:
How To Be Consistent With Classroom Management
Here are some strategies you can start using tomorrow:
The 2×10 Relationship Building Technique
Some students may not be as easy to connect with as others. Whether it be shyness, behavioural challenges, or other that is keeping you from really creating a relationship with a student, here is a technique that could help you overcome it. Setting aside only two minutes a day for ten school days in a row to pointedly have a one on one neutral conversation with a student can make a world of difference. In the link below, this phenomenon is explained, and how it can impact a student’s behaviour, attitude, attendance, and academic success. Within the Journal Pages for Teachers, a page for recording the summaries of the conversations for ten days, as well as a page to reflect are included.
2×10 Relationship Building: How to Do It (and Why It Works!)
Emotional Check Boards
A simple trick you can include in your daily classroom routines is having your students self-report how they are feeling by sticking their label on an emotional check board. There are many different varieties of this, from sticky notes and emojis to colour spectrums and name tags. In doing this, it allows students to share how they are feeling in a subtle manner, and teachers to get a feel for where their students are at before the day even starts. For a less public version of this, I have included journal pages for both age groups with similar layouts. Here is more information on the emotional check boards:
Using an Emotions Check-In – The Pathway 2 Success
Using Positive Feedback
One of the many roles a teacher has is to help guide, correct, and support their students through their learning. This can sometimes seem more like herding and forcing than gently encouraging, but no matter how resistant students are to learning, it is important to remember the value of positivity. Encouragement, positive reinforcement, and genuine support goes a long way in helping students succeed academically and in supporting healthy student-teacher relationships. Here is more information and a guide on how important positive feedback is, and how to implement it:
5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback
Active Listening
Part of feeling cared for and understood is feeling heard. With a lot of voices, needs, and responsibilities to keep track of in a classroom, some student’s voices can get lost in the crowd. Active listening is a valuable skill in making sure every child knows that their needs matter. More info: