Classroom Community

How do you as a teacher build a classroom community?  

When I first heard the term “classroom community” I thought about all the things you do as a teacher to create a positive atmosphere within your classroom. While this is true to an extent, I feel you have to do more than create a positive environment. In classroom management we talked about how to create this community for our students but I was still lost on how to effectively do it within my own classroom. After taking this class, I feel I learned the things I want to do in my classroom to create community. The three things I want to incorporate in my classroom are safety for students, respect for students, and understand what my students are capable of by differentiate my instruction to teach to their needs.

To create a safe place for my students to learn, I need to be someone they can talk to about their concerns.  After being in the classroom for three semesters now I can understand why people say what they do about school being the safest place for a child to be. I feel as I create this safe environment in my classroom the students will be able to feel they can open up to me and other students in the class. One thing I really like and want to incorporate in my classroom are morning meetings. I feel as I incorporate these into my classroom our classroom community will grow because students will be able help one another overcome the challenges they have.

In order to create classroom community I feel it is vital to respect one another. One thing I really liked from field this semester was how my teacher expected her students to respect one another. She taught at the beginning of the semester the importance of listening when others are speaking. I felt because she had established clear expectations for her students, her students were able to respect each other’s ideas and opinions. I felt because of her expectations she was able to have a classroom community of respect. After seeing this example, I want to share with my students the importance of respecting each other because it helps create community in the classroom.

The third thing I feel will help build classroom community is to understand what my students are capable of achieving by differentiating my instruction. I feel some teachers think a student can’t achieve greatness because they never have or they are compared to another family member who didn’t do well in their classroom. I feel it is important for teachers to get rid of these judgments and think about the best way to help their students reach their full potential regardless of the student’s past. I feel morning meetings are one way to understand what our students’ are capable of achieving. In morning meetings you create an environment for learning to occur and for students to share what they know. After learning about the hallmarks I want to teach using these because I feel as I incorporate them into my instruction I will be able to teach to the needs of my student by placing them in groups, giving clear directions, etc.
For me to become a good teacher I feel it starts by creating a safe community within my classroom. It seems simple to create this classroom community but I feel a lot of teachers struggle to have a community within their class where the students feel safe, secure, and can share their opinion. I thought about what I was going to do to ensure my students felt safe in my classroom. The things I want to do in my classroom to create community include the three things already addressed: safety for my students, respect for my students, and understand what my students are capable of by differentiate my instruction to teach to their needs. Not only will this kind of teaching help differentiate my instruction it will be a safe and fun environment for learning.