Building a Classroom Community (New Teachers' Column)

“Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation for life;  education islife  itself.”  —  John Dewey

If you are a new teacher, you have just completed your first term in  the classroom.   Take  a minute to look back at  the beginning of the school year. Before classes started you  probably spent a lot of time setting up your classroom, creating  name tags and labels, getting ready the correct number of  notebooks and Duo-Tangs,  and more. However, that  preparation  only took you to the first day of school. It was when the names on your class list arrived as real  people on that first morning that the classroom began to take  shape. What you did from then on determined  the character of  your classroom community.

The importance  of  building a cohesive classroom  community  is  one of the powerful  themes that  emerged when   more than  2,500  teachers were asked to describe what  contributes to their success in the classroom.  What do they do  that has the most impact? These teachers’  ideas are the basis for a new resource that  ETFO is developing – The Heart and Art of Teaching  & Learning. It  will offer practical ideas and resources  for beginning teachers –  in fact, all teachers. Members  told us it  was crucial to remember this:  what we  teach is  curriculum, but who we teach are students. Students come with their own personalities, interests, abilities, challenges,  and backgrounds. The  skilled  teacher ensures that everyone,  including him/herself, is  involved in shaping what becomes  a  unique classroom  community where everyone  belongs.

Teachers   may  feel   some  tension  between building an  inclusive classroom  culture and the pressure to get on with the curriculum. This is not an either/or proposition. When you build a learning-focused  classroom culture where the thoughts and contributions  of all students are valued you will actually create  more time for teaching and spend less time managing students’ behaviour. The usual get-to-know-you  games and fun first day activities serve to introduce everyone to each other, but they are  only the beginning. You build a community in a classroom by providing regular opportunities  for students to

• function in groups and teams
• participate in classroom meetings  where decisions  are made and problems are discussed
• learn co-operation by working collaboratively
• accept each others’ strengths and weaknesses.

This  means that  when you  decide how to  set up your room, you don’t make all the decisions ahead of time. After  the students arrive, you ask them for input on how the  space will function best. This gives them some shared  ownership  of their classroom environment.  As well, don’t decorate the classroom  with store-bought laminated posters. Post the students’ work and art. Within a few days they will see themselves as connected and part of the classroom.

What  students  remember about  their  time with you as their teacher is  not the innovative way they  learned  long  division or  the  unit  on Early Civilizations, but who you were as a person, and how the classroom felt. Students who are part of a classroom  community  remember that experience and learn life-long lessons from it.