Constructing a Community, by Mary Ellen Bafumo

A classroom community provides a safe place for students and is a huge asset to your classroom management

Getting the school year off to a good start is the hope of everyone who has ever had a classroom to manage. As the school year opens, you have a brief window of opportunity to create a positive impression for the year that lies ahead. But, you also face an age-old dilemma in the process. If you create a warm, welcoming and enticing classroom, will you be able to manage it effectively?

Being the lawgiver and laying out punishments on the first day is an invitation to be challenged and a sure way to sour your students on the joys of learning. Being a friend rather than a professional invokes the doormat syndrome; students will soon be walking all over you. Read on for a better way to get off to a good start and create a classroom in which everyone learns and grows.

A safe environment
Common sense and research agree on two features of classrooms that help students achieve their learning goals: a safe and nurturing environment and motivational instruction. The Developmental Studies Center (DSC) in Oakland, CA, has compiled years of research on the benefits of a safe and supportive environment. According to DSC, "Building a safe and caring community is instrumental to children's academic, social and ethical development. Students who feel connected to school perform better, and are less likely to engage in problem behavior."

Construction in progress
Building a classroom community provides the two elements every teacher seeks – student achievement and fewer behavioral problems. A classroom community isn't built overnight, but construction begins the first days of school.

Getting started
Here are some ideas for those critical early days. If you haven't yet tried these, the first days of school are a good time to start.

• Actively model civil discourse and appropriate behaviors so that your students have a sense of how they should proceed. Using words and phrases like "Please," "Thank you" and "Excuse me" are starters. "May I help?" "What a great idea!" "Thanks for trying." "Good job, you let Tonya get ahead of you!" are useful, too. The rule of thumb in classrooms, as in life, is that you get what you give. Give your best and reinforce the best from your students.

• Share your expectations for the class and ask your students how everyone can help to achieve those expectations. Come right out and say, "We're going to be like a family that helps and supports each other so that our classroom is the best place to be. What should each of us do to make it that way?" Guide your students towards traits like patience, respect, sharing, listening to others, completing work, being on time, etc.

• Invite students to devise a simple set of classroom guidelines (notice that we're not calling them rules) to define the way they want their classroom to be. Guide responses so that everything is phrased in a positive way. "We listen to each other," rather than "We don't speak without raising our hands." Keep these simple and have only a few.

• Introduce the classroom meeting process on the first day to share expectations and devise guidelines. Hold a meeting on the first day of school to get everyone familiar with the process. The most compassionate and empowered critical thinkers I've ever met among K-8 students are those who engaged in classroom meetings. Once you see the difference, you won't go back to a classroom without them. When a challenge arises later, you can ask your students what can be done to resolve it. Meetings build ownership in peer behaviors and develop problem-solving skills. Well-run meetings should take very little time. Be sure to learn how to conduct classroom meetings if you don't know how. Check out the DSC website (www.devstu.org) for excellent teacher resources (books and videos) on classroom meetings and on creating safe and caring classrooms. DSC also has first-rate resources for students and parents that augment teacher efforts in these areas.

• Starting the first week of school, create a weekly newsletter (preferably by computer) for your students' parents and caregivers by using a simple template. Better still, provide the information and ask a parent aide in your classroom to take charge. Make sure you always review your newsletter before it goes to print. Include student expectations and guidelines, information about classroom meetings, the current unit of study, homework, ways to reinforce learning at home, good books for home reading, class activities, upcoming events, achievements and examples of student work. Make it interesting so the newsletter is eagerly anticipated each week.

See the difference
A great deal of the difference between classrooms that function and those that function well can be traced back to their level of community. When students feel safe, welcome and have input into classroom structure, they "invest" in classmates and procedures. Start building your classroom community and see the difference it makes for everyone.

Mary Ellen Bafumo is a Program Director for the Council on Educational Change, an Annenberg legacy group.