Community Building
Community building is the process of creating a close knit environment within the classroom. The teacher can create this close knit community through the routines and activities they use throughout the school year
Community buliding will take place through the morning greeting. Morning greeting makes everyone feel welcomed within the classroom setting. It makes students comfortable and informs them that the teacher cares when they are greeted as individuals and not just as a group. There are plenty of activities that a teacher can do for greeting. For example, a class spider web. A student starts with a ball of yarn, shares something fun that he has done in the past week, the whole class then says "good morning". The student holds the end of the yarn and then passes the ball of yarn onto another student. The process then repeats until it gets back to the student that started. The end product should look like a spider web. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.6
Community building is the process of creating a close knit environment within the classroom. The teacher can create this close knit community through the routines and activities they use throughout the school year
Community buliding will take place through the morning greeting. Morning greeting makes everyone feel welcomed within the classroom setting. It makes students comfortable and informs them that the teacher cares when they are greeted as individuals and not just as a group. There are plenty of activities that a teacher can do for greeting. For example, a class spider web. A student starts with a ball of yarn, shares something fun that he has done in the past week, the whole class then says "good morning". The student holds the end of the yarn and then passes the ball of yarn onto another student. The process then repeats until it gets back to the student that started. The end product should look like a spider web. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.8 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.6
Another commuinty building strategy I like is having a student of the week. Every week, the teacher selects a different student to be "student of the week". To start off, the selected student sits up in front of the class and calls on his or her peers to give that specific student a compliment. The teacher records this compliment on a piece of paper and then sends that same paper home for a parent to leave a compliment. This student then gets to create a poster about him/herself and share information that is important to them. Along with this, the student of the week is allowed to eat lunch back in the room as well as have the job that he or she wants within the classroom. This is a great way for students to get to know each other and it even incorporates families in the students educational experience. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.6 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.3 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.6
Another community building strategy that is used within this classroom is the simple fact that students will be sitting with a different group each and every week. This strategy may be the simpliest of all, however, it could be the most impactful. Creating different groups makes students collaborate with a person that they may not know all that well. The collaboration that students will do throughout the year helps build friendships and that close knit community within the classroom. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.1
Another community building strategy that is used within this classroom is the simple fact that students will be sitting with a different group each and every week. This strategy may be the simpliest of all, however, it could be the most impactful. Creating different groups makes students collaborate with a person that they may not know all that well. The collaboration that students will do throughout the year helps build friendships and that close knit community within the classroom. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.1
Self Management Strategies
Self management is defined as management of or by oneself; the taking of responsibility for one's own behavior and well-being. There are many things a teacher can do within their classroom to help students reflect on their behaviors and actions.
One strategy that I really like is a behavioral assessment that students do after each subject that is taught during the day. I would create a football field chart to show the students progress and little paper helmets that represent each student. After a subject, the teacher will ask each student, individually, "how do you think you did during that time?" The student will give the teacher a number one through three (one being the worst, three being the best). If the student thinks that he/she deserves a one, their helmet does not move on the football. A two moves the helmet forward ten yards, and a three moves the them forward twenty yards. Each student starts the day off at one goal line and they want to score a touchdown by the end of the day. If the student just hands in their homework, completed, they automatically start at the twenty yard-line. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.3
Another strategy that will be used is allowing students to find their comfort within the classroom setting. What this means, is that the teacher will allow the student to do what they have to do, during a stressful situation, to meet a need that is vacant at the moment. For example, something as small as a using a fidget can give the student the need that they desire which leads to them focusing better. Another situation that may happen would be a student having to leave a situation, go to the back of the room just to remove himself from the situation that is causing him stress. The self-management strategy that is being used here, is the teacher allowing the students to dictate, for themselves, when they need that break or fidget. The teacher is not the one that tells the student "I think you're stressed, go take a break", it is the student who recognizes they need the break. Using this strategy allows the students to manage themselves and it saves the student from potential humiliation because the teacher is not making a scene in front of the class.
Self management is defined as management of or by oneself; the taking of responsibility for one's own behavior and well-being. There are many things a teacher can do within their classroom to help students reflect on their behaviors and actions.
One strategy that I really like is a behavioral assessment that students do after each subject that is taught during the day. I would create a football field chart to show the students progress and little paper helmets that represent each student. After a subject, the teacher will ask each student, individually, "how do you think you did during that time?" The student will give the teacher a number one through three (one being the worst, three being the best). If the student thinks that he/she deserves a one, their helmet does not move on the football. A two moves the helmet forward ten yards, and a three moves the them forward twenty yards. Each student starts the day off at one goal line and they want to score a touchdown by the end of the day. If the student just hands in their homework, completed, they automatically start at the twenty yard-line. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.2.3
Another strategy that will be used is allowing students to find their comfort within the classroom setting. What this means, is that the teacher will allow the student to do what they have to do, during a stressful situation, to meet a need that is vacant at the moment. For example, something as small as a using a fidget can give the student the need that they desire which leads to them focusing better. Another situation that may happen would be a student having to leave a situation, go to the back of the room just to remove himself from the situation that is causing him stress. The self-management strategy that is being used here, is the teacher allowing the students to dictate, for themselves, when they need that break or fidget. The teacher is not the one that tells the student "I think you're stressed, go take a break", it is the student who recognizes they need the break. Using this strategy allows the students to manage themselves and it saves the student from potential humiliation because the teacher is not making a scene in front of the class.