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Get-to-know-you / Introduction Icebreakers Getting-to-know-you icebreakers (or introduction games) help people become more acquainted with each other - their names, interests, experiences, memories, and so on. The results are often humorous, interesting, or fascinating. Try these games and let us know what you think. We're adding instructions to new games and activities all the time..

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6 Activities to Build a Positive Classroom Culture

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6 Activities to Build a Positive Classroom Culture

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Every school is unique and has its own demographics and issues. Every learner comes to school with their strengths, challenges, background, and concerns. In fact, each class is unique because of the teacher and how they present what it means to be part of the class. One way to build the culture is to start the year by getting to know each other. The time you spend building a strong classroom culture in the first few weeks of school will bring amazing returns every day of the year. You can build a compassionate classroom and place relationships at the center of the classroom that are based on trust and respect. Relationships matter! So how do you build trust and a caring classroom?

Our first questions should be, "What do children need?"...
followed immediately by "How can we meet those needs?" Alfie Kohn

Culture Building Activities

Here are a few culture building activities for any age learners to build a positive classroom culture where they get to know and care about the teacher and each other.

1. Welcome Message

What message does your classroom give right when people walk in? What about creating a welcome sign? The picture on the left has a message that you can make personal to represent the culture in your class. The welcome sign doesn't have to be a sign; it can be a poster or a welcome mat. The idea is to make your classroom inviting to anyone who wants to learn or visit your class.

2. Special Greetings

Instead of jumping right into academics as soon as your learners come in the door, what about coming up with a special greeting just for your class? Some teachers even have special handshakes. You don't have to memorize a special handshake for each learner, but please memorize their names. Find a way to make each learner unique and valued for who they are. Do some homework to find out something each learner is passionate about or some event they were involved in. When you greet each learner, look them in the eye, say their name, and mention something or ask a question about them, it makes a difference. I saw this video from the Atlanta Speech School on Facebook and felt it just had to be shared here also.

3. Morning Meetings

A compassionate classroom is also a responsive community. A morning meeting is an engaging way to start each day and to focus on social-emotional learning using strategies to foster a sense of belonging and caring. The teacher can start off the year defining empathy and model how to do active listening. Learners can sit in a circle and greet each other. The teacher can invite learners to pair with someone they haven't shared with before. Then have them ask each other questions about something important in their lives. The teacher can then bring everyone back and start the day with an activity or question to think about during the day. One question could be "How will you reflect on your learning today?"

4. The Power of YET

Start the year by reviewing the words we say and what they mean. In a previous post, 7 Ideas to Discover Magic in Your Classroom, I mentioned fixed vs. growth mindset. After meeting with some teachers and learners, I saw the emphasis on using the word: YET. Start off the year talking about mindset and the words that demonstrate a fixed mindset and how changing the words and statements so they demonstrate a growth mindset. But we are humans and creatures of habits. We tend to go back to saying "I can't.." and "I'm not..." Share the word YET and see the power of it. Say it over and over until your learners use it all on their own and maybe even to correct you.

5. Me Too Activity

Have learners share something about themselves and what they like to do such as "I like Minecraft." If other learners also like Minecraft, they then stand up and say "Me too!" Continue to invite learners to share something and see who else has the same interests or facts. Then give them time to share with each other. If they enjoy tinkering, designing, and building, invite them to put together a proposal on what they would like to create together. Have them share with another group for feedback. This Me Too activity can be used for anything that learners may want to do together.

6. Reflections

Put time aside at the end of the day or period for reflection. Come up with a question for learners to consider for reflection. A question could be about "What did you do to take a risk today in your learning?" I saw learners doing this reflection at Viscount Primary School in Mangere district of Auckland . It was very powerful to listen to the discussions they had with another learner about the risks they took. Then the teacher invited all learners to sit in a circle and share any thoughts about their reflections. It was so cool that everyone wanted to share. You could see a real compassionate classroom where everyone cared about each other.

You may find that building a culture is bigger than just one classroom; it involves the whole school. Check out the resources put together by KnowledgeWorks to help you build a positive culture.

Back to School Culture

Download KnowledgeWorks Get Ready: Back-to-School Culture Toolkit to uncover insights from other district and school leaders on:

How to engage parents, community members, and business leaders

* 5 goals to set for a strong school culture

* Tips for helping students develop critical social-emotional skills needed for the future workforce

* Guidance on aligning budget decisions to your learner-centered vision

About the author

Barbara is a Creative Learning Strategist, owner/founder of Computer Strategies, LLC and its divisions My eCoach (my-ecoach.com) and Rethinking Learning. She loves to write and is co-author of Make Learning Personal and How to Personalize Learning. This website is where Barbara shares her own views of teaching, learning, and life and is honored to share guest posts and host podcasts from awesome educators and influencers with you!

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6 Activities to Build a Positive Classroom Culture

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Every school is unique and has its own demographics and issues. Every learner comes to school with their strengths, challenges, background, and concerns. In fact, each class is unique because of the teacher and how they present what it means to be part of the class.

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A Focused Practice for Relationship Building

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A Focused Practice for Relationship Building

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A Focused Practice for Relationship Building

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To connect with all of his students, a teacher reflects intently on five of them each day and makes a point of engaging them.

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This is the fourth installment in a year-long series of written and video diary entries by Shelby Denhof, who is letting us follow her first year of teaching. To see all entries, click here. Links to all the books recommended in this post are Amazon affiliate links, which provide Cult of Pedagogy with a small commission on every purchase at no extra cost to you.
When I was hired, I didn't have a single book to put on the shelves for my students.
At this point-now nearly through my first year of teaching-I have over five hundred books spread out around the room, organized by genre. Choice reading has quickly become a celebration with my seventh graders and a pivotal part of relationship-building with them.

Just weeks before the school year started, I reached out to the right person at the right time and was given over a hundred new, high-interest books for my room. An advocate for choice reading herself, this former teacher was retiring from the classroom and wanted to see those books put to good use. They made it into my hands.

I had them out and ready on the first day of school. By the second day, some of my students approached me about them: "Would it be okay if I looked at these?" each one of them asked timidly, gesturing to the shelves. Of course I said yes. As a few students got up, others followed. I couldn't have been more excited.

Since then, books have circulated between the shelves and my students. There are a handful of books that are so sought after, my students created their own waiting list for them. It's taped to the wall by the graphic novel section.

Talking about and sharing books has become such an integral part of my daily interactions with students, it's difficult to pin down the magic it's created, but the effects can be broken down into three distinct categories:

When I get new books, I make a point of putting them out gradually and share each new book with my classes. I sell it to them. They see the cover. They hear what it's about. They learn why I got it and who recommended it. I share just the right amount of juicy details. More times than not, it doesn't even make it to the shelf before someone asks to check it out and others call dibs for later.

For two English units, my classes participate in book clubs instead of reading whole-class texts. While studying World War II and the Holocaust, my students choose between seven options, including Night, Between Shades of Gray, and The Book Thief. With our science fiction unit, there are even more options, from The Giver to Uglies to A Wrinkle in Time.

When it's time to pick books, we spend a whole day exploring the options and learning about them to make sure students pick the best fit for them. The groups are student-led (with a healthy amount of scaffolding and guidance). Ultimately, though, they decide what they'd like to talk about. With this format, my students shine. They accept leadership roles in teaching other groups about their books and eagerly apply what we are learning about in class to their novels.

Outside of English 7, I teach an intervention course for students who struggle with reading comprehension. I inherited this class carte blanche: it's mine to make what I want of it. With this exhilarating amount of freedom, I decided to dedicate the first twenty minutes of every class to choice reading. After all, the best way to get better at reading is to read. That holds true for excellent readers as well as reluctant readers. And trust me, my Reading Extensions kids are the epitome of reluctant readers.

What makes this class special, though, is how I've built the curriculum around what they are interested in. After a lengthy 'interview' process with each student at the beginning of the semester, I compile a detailed list of likes and dislikes and everything in between for each kid. I use that list to help dictate book clubs, suggest new reading options to students, and tailor nonfiction texts to each reader's ability and interests. Much of the class is about teaching each other about the stories, novels, and articles each person is enjoying. This individualized curriculum helps to capture those kids who proudly identify as school-haters and help them build positive relationships with school, teachers, and peers, sometimes for the first time.

One awesome perk of the school I work in is that is that we have designated time for silent reading twice a week. This reading time, called Connect, is a half hour in the day for students to stop what they are doing and enjoy a good book, no matter what class they are in. While many teachers don't like Connect, I do. I always look forward to it. For me, it provides that extra time to bond with my students through what they are reading. They spread out across the room, take out their books, and jump in. Oftentimes I join them, grabbing a book of my own and taking a seat next to some kids on the floor. I circulate from kid to kid, hearing about what they're reading and asking questions. Luckily my seventh graders haven't yet adopted the too-cool attitude of the eighth graders, who often seem more like demons than teenagers, and my students will happily talk on and on about their books. Just yesterday, for example, Chelsea came up to me, holding the book Bad Girls Don't Die: "Miss Denhof, have you read this? It's really freaky. It's about this doll, and, oh my gosh, I couldn't even fall asleep last night."

"What book are you talking about?" Katie asked, her curiosity piqued. The book in her own hands was set down as she turned to listen more. Chelsea immediately jumped in, filling Katie in on all the tantalizing details. Katie made her promise to give it to her next.

These conversations are a dream. They are natural relationship-builders that-after finding that right book-don't even require the gentlest push on my part. They are eager to share with one another and grow closer through that.

If there's one thing my kids know, it's that I'm there for them. The relationships we've built through books is just a platform to show them that I'm listening, I'm invested in them, and I'm in their corner.

Levi came up to me on Monday and told me how he's looking to start a new series. I sat down and brainstormed options with him, hearing about what he's already finished and loved. During my prep hour, I researched more options online and gave him a list next day, including notes about which can be found in our school library.

Another student, Heather, is a former Reading Extensions student that fell in love with graphic novels. She wanted to read the fourth book in the Amulet series, which I didn't have. I requested it at the library, had it sent to me, and watched her smile as I set it on her desk.

Jeremy-an avid reader-came up to me before first hour, thrilled to tell me about the crime novel he'd just finished. "There was a lot of bad language in it, but I think you should still get this for the classroom," he explained. As he was trying to convince me, another student named Abby came up to me for a high five. "I finished it!" she said, giving me a rare smile. She held up Girl, Stolen. I congratulated her profusely, letting her know how proud I was of her for sticking with a book to the end.

Right now, my bookshelf doesn't look much different than it did on the first day of school. There are more empty spaces on some shelves than filled ones, but for a new reason this time: The books are checked out! They are ready to frustrate and excite and scare and inspire and move these young readers, and I can't wait to hear all about it. ♦

In this video, Shelby recommends some of her favorite books to read with her students:

Here are links to the books mentioned in the video:

The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The Compound, by S.A. Bodeen

Legend, by Marie Lu

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld

The New Teacher Checklist
If you're a new teacher, the Cult of PedagogyNew Teacher Checklist will provide a structure to follow as you progress through the school year. To download a free copy, just sign up for our mailing list. Then you'll get weekly e-mails with tips, tools, and inspiration to help you make your teaching better every day.

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Building Relationships with Students Through Books

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This is the fourth installment in a year-long series of written and video diary entries by Shelby Denhof, who is letting us follow her first year of teaching. To see all entries, click here .

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Being a teacher these days is not even remotely easy. The nonsense we have to deal with from developmentally inappropriate standards to endless meetings and data to no lunch or bathroom breaks are nothing short of lunacy. Throw in an unruly class with some serious behavior problems and you have a recipe for early retirement.

The trick is to make what happens inside that classroom with those kids as joyful as possible so that the rest of the crazy in our profession will be easier to manage, We must try to shelter our students and ourselves from the stress and pressure.

We all know that achieving that classroom nirvana of peace and productivity requires an authentic connection with our students. When our students feel loved and understood, they feel safe. Safe enough to take academic and social risks. Safe enough to try and fail. In a close knit, loving environment, failure is part of the process, not an embarrassment.

But how do we form those genuine, loving relationships? There are many layers to that question, but I have complied a list of some of the ways I try to connect with kids in my class.

1. T-Mail

Nope, not email - Tmail! This is a small space set up for kids to write a note to the teacher. When the flag is up, I know I need to check for a note. I usually reply and leave it in their folder or hand it to them personally at the end of the day. The kids' faces light right up when they get that note back from the teacher! They feel so special.

2. Power of Post-its

At the beginning of the year, I grab a a pack of colorful post it notes and write each student's name on one. Over the next week, I jot a note and give it to the child. It might be a note of praise for working hard or a note of encouragement after a rough day. By labeling them at the beginning of the week, I ensure that every kid gets one. When all the notes are gone, I label another set of notes and start all over.

3. Conversation Notebooks

I bought small, 2 x 4 inch spiral notebooks at the Dollar Tree 3 for $1.00 and labeled one for each student. They keep it in their desk. Students write a note to me, leave it on my desk, and sometime that day or after school, I write a reply. We can write back and forth to each other as little or as often as the child likes. I have had kids ask me about my family, tell me about a conflict with another kid, share a joke, tell me how things are at home, or even just draw a silly picture.
I love it when I see a notebook appear on my desk!

4. Morning Greeting

I like to greet the kids as they trickle in the room from the bus and cafeteria. It's easy to get busy prepping for the day, but taking a few minutes to say good morning, ask how baseball practice went or share a tale about your commute, allows kids to gently, and socially, settle in. I'm a huge fan of well taught procedures to keep things running smoothly, and part of that procedure is having a moment at arrival to speak with friends and have quick chat with the teacher and each other. They need time to greet and chat informally before the morning work and announcements and morning meetings begin. It's the same thing I do when I come in to the office in the morning - greet colleagues, chat with someone about their daughter's recital, get the latest news on the broken copier - then head on to class.

5. Share A Meal

Have breakfast or lunch together. Sometimes I eat in the cafeteria with the kids, sometimes I take a few kids back to the room for lunch. On occasion, I bring my breakfast and have it in the room with the kids in the morning. We talk about stuff, tell jokes, complain about dumb siblings, argue about which video game is the best one ever in the world, and other really important topics. But seriously, it is probably the most valuable 20 minutes of our day. I don't do it every day because I really just need a break on many days, but a couple of times a week works for me. I actually enjoy it and we connect in a personal way that is often impossible during the jam packed day of lessons and tight schedules.

How do you form honest, authentic relationships with your students?

Welcome! I am Nikki Sabiston, a 20 year veteran teacher at Title I schools in Virginia. I share classroom management strategies and create teaching resources to enhance literacy, math, and behavior management in the elementary classroom.

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5 Simple Ways to Connect with Students and Build Relationships

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Being a teacher these days is not even remotely easy. The nonsense we have to deal with from developmentally inappropriate standards to endless meetings and data to no lunch or bathroom breaks are nothing short of lunacy. Throw in an unruly class with some serious behavior problems and you have a recipe for early retirement.

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Icebreakers, Warmups, Energerizers, & Deinhibitizers: Activities for getting groups going

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Volume 27, Number 1
January/February 2011

In theory and rhetoric, the notion that teachers must build relationships with students is logical and well accepted. In my work in schools, I rarely, if ever, hear practitioners contest the idea that relationship building is a critical aspect to their success with students in any classroom or school.

The question, however, is how do teachers and other educators build those relationships? Further, how do educators sustain them-especially during times of conflict-in order to maximize learning opportunities?

At its root, building relationships with students is about meeting students where they are, attempting to understand them, and developing connections with them. From the outset, it requires that teachers are willing to find the good and the worth in students. All students possess positive characteristics and attributes, but these are sometimes overlooked and undervalued. To make these important connections, teachers may have to refocus and sharpen their lenses for thinking about students, especially when they have known students only in a negative light. Teachers have to ask themselves: "Am I prepared to recognize talent, potential talent, intellect, skill, excellence, and ability when they emerge in an unexpected social context or with an unexpected group of students?"

Teachers should feel empowered and poised to take advantage of the many micro- or classroom-level practices that can assist them in learning about and cultivating relationships with their students. Here are five that I recommend in particular:

1. Interview Your Students. Teachers sometimes spend infinite amounts of time talking about students to their colleagues or to students' parents but minimal time actually talking to students themselves. This strategy suggests that teachers engage in conversations with students themselves to learn from and about them. Teachers can then incorporate this learning into the class curriculum and teaching. In my university classroom, I utilize this strategy. For instance, when I learn of a student's interest in a particular aspect of education, I remain mindful of that area of interest. When I am reading journals and books, or when I am engaged in research projects, I often make copies of writing or related information that may be of interest to that student and share the materials with him or her.

2. Give assignments that allow students to share their experiences and interests. In language arts, assignments might include journal writing or essay writing. In social studies, assignments might include family history projects or local community-studies projects. In mathematics or science, assignments might include student-constructed word problems or community-based inquiry projects where students investigate the effects of environmental realities on health, crime, and/or poverty in their community.
3. Encourage classroom discussions that let students be the center of attention. Teachers should not always be at the center of discussions but should allow students to share events and experiences from home and their community. Students should be allowed to share whatever information they feel comfortable discussing. When I taught high school English, I used to facilitate what I came to call "rap sessions" that allowed students to have conversations with each other about what was happening in their lives inside and outside of school. The students developed topics that they wanted to discuss, and we selected a few that allowed them to debate issues or just to share their perspectives on a particular theme. The experience was inundated with learning opportunities: it allowed students to think about and construct a position; it allowed students to develop counter-positions; it helped students learn to substantiate their positions, listen to others, and build coherent narratives; and it provided students space for voice and authority in the classroom. These discussions gave students an opportunity to develop their own voice and perspective and allowed me to gain more knowledge about them.
4. Attend extracurricular activities featuring your students. It means something to students when teachers take time out of their schedules to visit an activity they are involved in. I shall never forget the time my third-grade teacher attended my football game at a city park. Needless to say, I played at my highest capacity that game, and I remember feeling a great sense of pride that my teacher had supported me in this way. In the third-grade classroom, I remember putting forth more effort after this experience and looking at my teacher with an intensified level of respect. It is important for teachers to attend students' activities-such as their plays or sporting events-even when they are not on duty as coaches, chaperones, directors, or sponsors. Teachers from elementary through high school should feel a sense of responsibility to be present at events that help complete students' educational experiences such as those connected to extra-curricular activities.

5. Visit a site in your students' community. When teachers immerse themselves in a student's community, they get a first-hand view of the student's life outside the learning environment. I recall that my mother, who owned a beauty salon in my community, saw my second-grade teacher every other Thursday when my mother styled her hair. Moreover, other teachers who taught my sister, me, and many of my friends also received services from my mother's beauty salon. Of course, I am completely confident that there were conversations about me and my academic performance during those appointments when my mother styled my teacher's hair. My second-grade teacher was building knowledge about me, the community, and other students in the community because my friends' parents also visited my mother's shop for services.

These activities are not complicated but take time and planning. Yet they have great potential to help teachers deepen their knowledge about students, build important relationships with them, and develop curriculum and instructional practices that are meaningful to students.

H. Richard Milner IV is associate professor of education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. This article was adapted from Start Where You Are, But Don't Stay There (Harvard Education Press, 2010).

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Volume 27, Number 1 January/February 2011 In theory and rhetoric, the notion that teachers must build relationships with students is logical and well accepted. In my work in schools, I rarely, if ever, hear practitioners contest the idea that relationship building is a critical aspect to their success with students in any classroom or school.

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Name Games and Get to Know Each Other Activities can:

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Get-to-know-you / Introduction Icebreakers Getting-to-know-you icebreakers (or introduction games) help people become more acquainted with each other - their names, interests, experiences, memories, and so on. The results are often humorous, interesting, or fascinating. Try these games and let us know what you think. We're adding instructions to new games and activities all the time..

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It's common for teachers to misunderstand the term "building relationships."

They hear of the importance of creating connections with students-particularly difficult students-and assume it means they need to spend more time with them individually.

They assume it means they need to try and get to know them on a more personal level.

But for a real-world teacher, finding the time to build relationships in this manner is not only unrealistic, but it's also ineffective. In fact, seeking out individual students in an attempt to earn their trust and rapport can do more harm than good.

You see, for most students, being cornered into a non-academic conversation with their teacher is uncomfortable-exceedingly so. It can make them feel clumsy and self-conscious and at a loss of anything to say.

Even the most socially confident students will feel unnerved and wary of your motives. And yet, there are teachers who day after day insist on pressing the issue.

They beckon students out of line, into hallways, and away from the social safety of fellow classmates. They barge into personal space. They query likes and dislikes and commonalities. They become forward and overbearing.

Although their heart is in the right place, what develops is a relationship of awkwardness and embarrassment. What develops is defensiveness and detachment. What develops builds walls instead of tearing them down.

But the goal of building relationships with students isn't familiarity. It's influence. And influence comes about not by one-on-one interactions, not by getting to know a student's favorite ice cream or video game, and not by being hip to current pop-cultural trends.

No, influential relationships come about through your trust and likability.

If your students trust you because you always do what you say will, and they like you because you're consistently pleasant, then powerful, behavior-influencing rapport will happen naturally and without you having to work at it.

Your students will seek you out and want to be around you and get to know you better. They'll be drawn to you and pulled effortlessly into your circle of influence.

Your conversations and interactions then become open and easy. When you sit down to lunch with groups of students or meet them in their line before school, the give-and-take flows smoothly, organically. Nothing is forced. Nothing is inauthentic.

Even quiet and shy students-especially quiet and shy students-will come out of the woodwork to laugh and joke with you and exchange goofy smiles. This in turn gives you remarkable leverage to influence behavior, work habits, and enthusiasm for being part of your classroom.

So stop buying into the notion that you have to build relationships one student at a time. Stop thinking that you have to add yet another time-consuming strategy to your overflowing plate. Stop spending more time with some students and not others.

The fact is, the most effective way to build relationships with students also happens to be the most effective approach to classroom management.

Be true to your word. Follow through with your classroom management plan. Refrain from any and all harmful, scolding, bribing, manipulative, or friction-creating methods of managing behavior.

Smile. Love your students. Bring humor and joy to your classroom. And you'll never, ever have to try to build influential relationships.

They'll just . . . happen.

If you haven't done so already, please join us. It's free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.

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What Building Relationships With Students Really Means - Smart Classroom Management

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It's common for teachers to misunderstand the term "building relationships." They hear of the importance of creating connections with students-particularly difficult students-and assume it means they need to spend more time with them individually. They assume it means they need to try and get to know them on a more personal level.