Classroom Community

Classroom Community Ashley Walker Education 1301 Professor Sumrall December 5, 2011

Classroom Community Positive social skills and academic achievement is the epitome of a successful classroom community. Children learn the finest when they consider themselves as part of a community, where everyone feels acknowledged and where individuality is expectant. In order to create a Classroom Community, a teacher must require preparation and exercise. With that in mind, I will share my ideal Classroom Community. Being an EC-6 Education major, my classroom will be either be first or second grade. I have a love and a desire to teach that age. Connecting with students can be a challenge for some teachers. However, I plan to make that connection from day one with my students and will not cease until I do so. The very first and most important way, is to build trust. Simply stated, building trust between my students and me will take my class and I far close to our goals than almost any other element. In my eyes, the more I remember about a student as I learn about him/her and the more I ask a student about these facts I remember, the more my students will trust me. A classroom built on trust and maintained throughout the year will perform far greater than a classroom built on threats and consequences. Secondly, I will treat every student equally. Every student is special and while I realize it is practically impossible for me to give every student equal attention, I must attempt to be as fair and unbiased to the needs of all the pupils, as possible. Every students doubts must be cleared and opinion heard. Listening to a few and ignoring the other can lead to self-demeaning of the student. If there is an issue of time, I can inform the student to meet me after class with their query and have it resolved then. I will be open to the students and be open for the students. Thirdly, I will let students be the center of attention. Teachers should not always be at the center of attention, but should allow students to share events and experiences from home and their community. Growing up, I love show and tell. It was one of the only times I got to learn something special and unique about each and every classmate and even the teacher. These days, it seems that not enough children get the opportunity to learn different cultures and understand the importance of a value to someone else. Having a share time similar to show and tell and allowing open discussions, it will give students and opportunity to develop their own voice and perspective and allow me to gain knowledge about them. H. Richard Milner IV, a high school teacher, wrote, Building relationships with students is bout meeting students where they are, attempting to understand them, and developing connections with them. I know of no truer words. As I stated earlier, trust is my most important and valued way of connecting with a student. In order to achieve this goal, I must be prepared with a plan of how to accomplish this. I believe that standing at the door between classes and talking to different students every day will begin to build this relationship. By listening and caring what they have to say, I will be able to draw upon that information for future interactions. The second way to accomplish this goal is by remember who the student lives with and frequently asking how their mother or whomever is. By doing so, the student realizes that I do care for him/her and want to make sure that everything is going okay. Lets say I achieved my goal of building trustbut what about student to student connection? In todays society, this can be even more of a problem than teacher-student connection. I plan to get rid of this idea and rebuild upon it with a positive manner. By doing so, I will encourage and require group projects and discussions. Both of these will allow students to work together and learn more about how each classmate is different in their own way. One teacher, Sarah Dennis-Shaw of Avon, Massachusetts, used poetry to draw her students together. The students used the internet to investigate the characteristics of acrostic poetry. She stated,

Classroom Community

The students brainstorm positive character traits about one of their classmates using an online thesaurus and compose an acrostic poem. Writing a poem about another classmate? Talk about self-esteem booster! Aristotle, a Greek philosopher and scientist, once said, We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. My classroom will know the importance of shared values if it is the last thing I do. In order for this to unfold, I will allow the class to make a Classroom Constitution. I will keep the constitution in plain sight for students to look at and refer to throughout the year. The values the students created will not be left in the dark and never used again. I will provide activities and ceremonies to promote success in my classroom. One idea I have is for which ever student, receives Student of the week I will allow them to choose something out of the treasure box. Another idea is to have a decorated ornament and name it the Table Fairy. This tradition will be performed every night after the kids leave. I will place it on the table that is the cleanest and tidiest. When the kids come in the next morning, they will consistently be eager to find out where the Table Fairy landed this time. My next idea comes from a school in Madison, Winsconsin. Every year the school has a Fun day. The website states, Fun Day is an end-of-year tradition for all Wingra students and their families. Its a fantastic day of outdoor games and activities such as water slide, dunk take, bubbles, inflatable obstacle course, face painting, and more. When asked about cooperative learning in her classroom, Donna Gregg, a Mckinney ISD teacher, stated, Taber is a math learning environment strategy. You can only have four groups consisting of a high learning, two medium learning kids, and low learning kidat the least. Each group has a leader and co-leader and you can add jobs such as time keeper and cleaner. On Mondays you have whole group lessons, on Tuesday/Wednesday, the kids rotate through manipulative, games, computer, and teacher table. On Thursday/Friday, the kids rotate through the same stations, but at the teacher table, the teacher can pull homogeneous groups. I find this idea to be extremely useful and beneficial to my future classroom. Another strategy I plan to use, I will implement to-do lists to do contracts in my reading workshop. As far as seating arrangement, I will place different learning leveled kids at the same table. The reason behind this is so whenever the kids are doing group work, the leader can mentor the slower one in the group and help him/her whenever needed. The most important aspect of a classroom community is to realize that as an educator of the society, I am charged with the responsibility of grooming the students to the best of their potential. My desire is to teach in a Title 1 school because I have a heart for the lower income families. Title 1 schools have many kids from broken families and shattered neighborhoods. It is my obligation as a teacher to create a safe and welcoming environment where the kids can learn and have a chance to prosper. A child that is deprived of learning opportunities and security at home, should thrive and flourish with their personal growth and development in a structured and sound environment. I will never cease to encourage them to be the best that they can be in all endeavors, support them, and lend them my experience. I will not discourage them, but empower them to grow up to become the leaders of the future.

Reference List Dennis-Shaw, Sarah. (N.d.) Building Classroom Community Through the Exploration of Acrostic Poetry. Readwritethink. Retreived from: http://www.readwritethink.org/classroomresources/lessonplans/building-classroom-community-through-807.html Milner IV, H. Richard. (2011). Five Easy Ways to Connect with Students. Harvard Education Letter, 27(1). Retrieved from: http://www.hepg.org/hel/article/492 The Heart Of Wingra. (2010). Year-Round Traditions. Retrieved from: http://www.wingraschool.org /news/news1.htm