Every year in the classroom makes me realize more and more how important it is to build a sense of community in the classroom. I may have rebelled against this concept, for awhile, remembering back to when teachers punished the whole class because of the misbehavior of one. My teachers should have read the book,
A Matter of Trust by Carolee Howes and Sharon Ritchie. They could have taught us how to help, and include, the children with problem behaviors. Now I know just how valuable a sense of community can be in a classroom, even a classroom of young children. Children who have opportunities to work together in a group, and learn to care about others who are having difficulty, gain skills which will be valuable throughout their life. Teachers who work to include all the children will find the all children have more pro-social behaviors.
How can you build a sense of community? I'm still learning, but here is part of what I know:
- Get to know each child and their strengths.
- Build a relationship with each child in the classroom.
- Make every effort to include each child in group activities, especially circle time.
- Role model how to help others.
- Have a positive attitude about children with less desirable behaviors. If you don't like one of the children, the other children will know and will treat that child the same way.
- Help the group solve group problems, set the rules and feel a sense of ownership of the classroom.
Please share your ideas and successes on building a sense of community, so we all can learn more. Just click on the comment link.
1 comment:
I know as a teacher, I work hard to make my environment as pleasant as possible. Sometimes it works, sometimes all my hard work backfires on me.
I have recently been exposed to a concept called Tribes. In my classes, there is a girl who's preschoolers have a 'Tribes' classroom. It places the responsibility on the group as a whole. She says it really works. I need to research it more before I try some of the concepts. But wile looking over it, I have found that much of it is being currently used in our classrooms.
If you are interested it learning more about the Tribes classroom concept, please visit:
http://www.tribes.com/how_tribes_learning_works.htm
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