Establishing A Positive Environment

A harmonious classroom is developed through a teacher's awareness of how to create a positive learning environment with emphasis on building a student's self-esteem. Through intentional specific teacher behaviors and strategies, you will make the difference in how your classroom feels. It is the teacher's behavior and reaction that will ultimately determine the climate in the clasroom.

Building a Community

A community is a safe place for risk taking. It is the culture of the classroom that encourages and supports student opinions and thoughts. A community is a place where all are respected. Community is something that needs to be built, it rarely happens automatically. Some ideas for building community:

Community Circle
Community circles are wonderful for sharing, discussing curriculum, learning collaborative skills, reflecting on the day, and celebrating. It allows a chance for each student to be seen, to speak, and to be heard. It models the importance of active listening, mutual respect and learning from each other that there are different ways of looking at things.

Journal Writing
Journals can be used in a variety of formats for a variety of reasons. Journals can be shared or private, reflective and/or academic.

Class Meetings
Regular class meetings can be held to update students on upcoming events, school policies, or predetermined topics.

Community Service
Do community service as a class project. Service learning, as a teaching method, is easy to initiate if you understand the underlying concepts of service learning and are open to the opportunities that present themselves.

Tribes
Tribes processes establish a caring environment for cooperative learning, but provide structure for positive interaction and continuity for working groups in the classroom. Tribes training is available.

Get to Know Your Students
Getting to know your students is critical! Get to know your students' learning styles, learning modalities and interests inside and outside the classroom.