# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Cool_Kids_Kindergarten - Greater Good in Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Notes_to_Self_Kindergarten - Greater Good in Education

# data[].attributes.headline
Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.subject
Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Restorative Practices with Ms. Healy's Class

# data[].attributes.headline
Morning Meetings: A Daily Strategy for Teaching Social and Emotional Learning to 1st Grade Students

# data[].attributes.subject
Morning Meetings: A Daily Strategy for Teaching Social and Emotional Learning to 1st Grade Students

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Morning Meetings: A Daily Strategy for Teaching Social and Emotional Learning to 1st Grade Students

# data[].attributes.headline
Building Social Emotional Awareness in the Classroom With the RULER Approach

# data[].attributes.subject
Building Social Emotional Awareness in the Classroom With the RULER Approach

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Building Social Emotional Awareness in the Classroom With the RULER Approach

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
These five strategies can help ensure that students feel they belong in your classroom.

©Ikon Images/Trina Dalziel

About a year ago, I received a text in the middle of the teaching day from the mother of a student I had taught eight years earlier as a second grader. She thanked me for always being there for her son, who had come out as gay to their family the night before. She shared that her son-now a senior in high school-mentioned me in their conversation and said I had taught him that all people have equal value in the world, a lesson that helped him face the truth of who he was.

Early elementary teachers rarely see the seeds we try to plant in our young students come to fruition, but we always hope they will grow into the people we imagine they can be. For the last 16 years, I've taught in an inclusion classroom where many students have learning differences that can pose a challenge to connecting with others. I've learned that if students feel anxious socially, they will not be open to taking academic risks, so building a culture of belonging has become my greatest priority. It is important to clarify that when I say "belonging," I am not talking about "fitting in"-students' individuality and uniqueness should always be valued. Belonging in the classroom means ensuring that all students feel welcomed, comfortable, and part of the school family.

Here are five simple ways I've found with which I can convince every student that he or she was meant to be in my classroom:

1. Shine a light on each student. Students often look to their teacher for a cue on how to handle social situations. In learning, we simply call this modeling. When working with students who have learning differences, I've learned it's important to model that every child has something special about him or her that we can celebrate. I had a student who ate alone every day the year before she joined my class. Her behaviors set her apart, and other students naturally started avoiding her. When she became my student, my co-teacher, my aide, and I made an intentional effort to laugh with her and praise her around her classmates. Soon, my students began to see her in a different light, and she never ate alone again. Help your students see each other through your eyes, so they can see each other's greatness.

2. Foster student identity building. Five times per year, I allow my students to do genius hour or passion projects of their choosing. I require only a two-paragraph written or typed piece to ground the work in English language arts. For students, these projects become very personal and a way to share more about who they are with their classmates, while boosting their public speaking skills. I've had students present about their rare medical conditions that they were previously afraid to talk about. Other students have explored their family heritage or activities they participate in, like karate or dance. In every case, students are empowered by their interests and passions, and they regularly say they enjoyed the learning that took place-about themselves and each other.

3. Always leave one desk empty. Every year, I have had at least one new student join us halfway through the school year. Chances are, for any 8-year-old going through a midyear move, it is one of the most difficult times they will ever endure. Seeing an empty desk when they arrive signals that our class has been waiting for them all year-and reminds other students throughout the year that our class could grow and change at any time. I also have my students make and hand out cards for the new student to welcome him or her upon arrival. Teachers have the power to send the message that they've been inconvenienced or the message that they're excited and happy for a new student to join the class.

4. Make sure that each child feels chosen. Several times a year, I ask my students to anonymously write down the names of three students they want to sit with or work with-ranked in order of preference. I go over the results to see who is being selected and who is not. With that knowledge, I seek out students who aren't chosen and create opportunities for them to build relationships with their peers. I may call on one of them and say, "Choose anyone you want to walk this to the office," for example, to help improve their social equity in the eyes of their peers. Other times, I will assign these students specific partners who will help them by modeling good social behaviors.

5. Weave social and emotional practices throughout the day. Toward the end of a school year, I start allowing students to choose their partners for activities, but I change up the traditional classroom social dynamics by letting the students who are typically not chosen to be the choosers. Knowing how this could easily backfire, I remind students of the proper and improper ways to react if the person who chooses them wasn't who they had in mind by stating, "When someone chooses you, they are giving you a gift-the gift is saying, out of all the people in the class, I choose you." This simple exercise takes only about three minutes, but it builds an important social and emotional foundation that teaches students to appreciate each other.

We can never take for granted the importance of our students feeling they belong. In a world that does not yet fully welcome everyone, schools can reinforce existing divisions or provide students a safe community that feels like a second home. That former second-grade student of mine went on to attend the prom with his boyfriend in our very conservative town and initiated a town-wide pride campaign. I have never felt more proud of my impact as a teacher. As educators, we really can help change the world, one child at a time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Every Student Matters: Cultivating Belonging in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These five strategies can make a big difference in ensuring that students feel they belong in your classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
EdCaptain - Life Skills Education for Children

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
My Identity - an activity for developing self-awareness in children

# data[].attributes.headline
Self-Awareness: Art Activity- All Grades

# data[].attributes.subject
Self-Awareness: Art Activity- All Grades

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A teacher shares her best practices for establishing strong relationships with her class at the start of the school year.

One day, Alyssa, an eighth-grade student, came to our middle school wearing a purple bandanna as a headband, even though she knew that our school's dress code does not allow bandannas. While it seemed like a simple issue to reconcile, I soon found another teacher knocking on my door that morning, asking me to tell Alyssa to take the bandanna off. He said he didn't feel comfortable handling the situation but knew I could persuade Alyssa to follow the rules because she trusted me.

That day, I took Alyssa aside, and we had a private conversation about why bandannas were not allowed at school. I assured her that I understood why she wanted to wear a headband, and I even offered her the option of wearing a different one. After our conversation, Alyssa calmly went to the bathroom and returned to class without the bandanna on her head.

This seemingly small encounter reminded me of the power of positive relationships in schools and why teachers must be intentional about building them. In the classroom, positive relationships are the foundation for learning success. Yet as teachers, we sometimes neglect to take the time to learn about our students as people, which can create barriers to learning and make even small interactions (or conflicts) challenging to handle.

Alyssa wasn't a perfect student, and math didn't come easy for her, but she worked hard in my class. She asked questions. She even came in before and after class for additional help or just to talk about her social life. She trusted me because I worked hard to build a relationship with her by showing that I respected her and cared for her well-being.

Many teachers feel pressure to cover content and to tackle many other job-related duties. However, I have found that investing time early and often to learn about students-by making small changes in our classroom-creates an environment where they are motivated to be successful. Here are six strategies I use to build better relationships with my students.

1. Learn names quickly and correctly. Too often, students, especially those who are marginalized, feel invisible in our schools. Value student diversity and identity by learning names quickly and pronouncing them correctly. Only use nicknames if students prefer them; never create a nickname for a student, because this strips him or her of the identity that is embedded in a name. Every year on the first day of school, I have my students create name tents and pronounce their names correctly for me. I practice pronouncing their names often. I take up the name tents and pass them out each class period until I have learned all of the students' names. I greet each of my students at the door by name before class.

2. Students are never too old for show-and-tell. Help students feel they're more than just another student by allowing them to bring in something that represents them, their culture, or some activity that they enjoy doing at the beginning of the year. Plan five to 10 minutes each day for a few students to share what they brought until you have given everyone in the class the opportunity. In my classes, students have brought in baby pictures of themselves, goggles that they use for their competitive swim team, and souvenirs from a family vacation. Once, my student Hannah brought her ukulele and sang the class a song. She turned show-and-tell into a party, and my students loved every minute of it.

3. Post student pictures and student work. Elementary teachers are very good at sharing student work, but middle and high school teachers often neglect this important practice, feeling that it's unnecessary for older students. I've found older students still need to be reminded that you value their work. When my students participate in the show-and-tell, for example, I snap a picture of them. Those pictures are then printed and posted on a bulletin board in class that stays up all year long. The students love seeing how they have changed over the course of the year because they realize that their growth and development is not only physical, but intellectual and emotional as well. In addition, students are so proud when their exemplary work, such as individual math projects and group work on math tasks, is displayed and celebrated.
©Theresa Montgomery
4. Assign seats, and change them often. We all know that middle school students don't always get along, but when students have opportunities to work together, they learn about each other and discover ways to work together even though they're different. I have my students sit at tables in my middle school math classroom. I assign them to tables of three or four students each; then they change seats once per week using an online random seat changer that is embedded in our attendance management system. After each change, the students answer a quick question, such as, "Who would you love to have dinner with and why?" to get to know the people at their table before spending a week collaborating with them on mathematical tasks.

5. Find small ways to connect. In my first-period class, we often have circle time on Monday mornings or after a break. We stand in a circle and pass a ball around. The person with the ball shares a compliment about another person in the circle, what they did over the weekend or the break, or how they are feeling in the moment and why. Once a student participated in goat yoga for a friend's birthday over the weekend. We were all intrigued by her pictures of goats walking on their backs during yoga class! If I forget circle time on Mondays, my students always remind me. They also always insist that I share too. Though it can seem like every minute is needed to get through the academic content, I've learned that a five-minute investment once a week to learn about each other is invaluable to my students and builds a better culture in my classroom.

6. Simply listen. As teachers, we often feel like we need to keep a professional distance from our students, but I've found that taking time to make small talk can help break down barriers to learning. Because I've made myself approachable, some of my students will tell me stories about their lives during the five minutes between classes. I stop what I am doing, look them in the eyes, and listen. I love seeing their eyes light up as they tell me these stories, and these encounters always leave me a little more knowledgeable about who they are as people.

All students deserve to have adults in their schools who care about them enough to be intentional about building positive relationships that give them the space to make mistakes and learn. If we truly expect our students to learn with us, they need to know that we care about them. They also need opportunities to learn about each other, so that they can build a community in which they grow together as learners.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 Strategies for Building Better Student Relationships

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A teacher shares her best practices for establishing strong relationships with her class at the start of the school year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Student Emotional Check-in Techniques | Kami

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Centering mental health in the classroom is vital for creating a more trustworthy learning environment – read more here!

# data[].attributes.headline
Morning Meeting in Midde and High School

# data[].attributes.subject
Morning Meeting in Midde and High School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Can we bring the advantages of an elementary school strategy for building a classroom community to the higher grades?

©Shutterstock/ESB Professional

Morning meetings are a nearly ubiquitous feature in elementary classrooms. Students gather on a rug to discuss the calendar, the weather, the news, and how they're feeling as the day begins. It's a wonderful system for building community and trust and for setting the stage for a day full of learning.

But can that work when you're a teacher who starts the day three, four, seven, or eight times? Middle and high school students need classrooms that hinge on community and trust just as much as elementary students do-can we replicate the outcomes of the morning meeting in a way that makes sense developmentally and logistically in higher grades?

How Morning Meetings Work

How do morning meetings help classroom communities develop? When students first gather at the beginning of the year, the most immediate need is gathering knowledge-new names, news from the summer, and current interests, as well as who you are as a teacher and what the class is going to be like. Students are also figuring out whether they're going to be with people who like them and whom they like.
Courtesy of Laura Thomas
As students become more aware of who is in the room, they need to learn how to communicate with one another. What are the expected norms and processes for discussion? Next they learn how to cooperate, like how to not get in one another's way as they work toward a common goal.

As they gain skill in cooperation, they cross over into collaboration-a shared investment in the success of all members of the community. At each of these stages, they face conflict and successes and build the trust necessary to move to the next level.

Morning Meetings in Middle and High School

In upper grades, what should we do to focus our opening instructional moves on the deliberate creation and maintenance of a learning community, without sacrificing valuable instructional time?

First, we have to recognize that we'll get more out of our students if they feel safe, supported, and known well in our classrooms. The time spent building community will come back to us exponentially in fewer behavior issues and better student engagement.

Knowledge: Use names. Make sure you know your students' names and that they know one another's names. I'm always amazed to find that kids who have sat side by side for years don't know one another's names. Require them to use names in responding to one another.

Ask students to respond to an opening prompt with a piece of information about themselves, some news or insight that they can share with a partner. Keep the stakes low here (favorite band, worst movie ever, plan for surviving the zombie apocalypse, etc.). Be sure that you respond to the prompt as well-let students get to know you.

Build a classroom culture filled with rituals and traditions that make your class different from others, like greeting students with a handshake at the door, putting a silly question on the board at the start of class, or keeping a silly piece of classroom decor-I was partial to a plaster rooster and an upside-down Christmas tree.

Be sure students know you like them. And create space for them to know one another through (appropriate) humor.

Communication: Take the time to articulate what you mean by a quality discussion (or better yet, arrive at a description as a class). Build a T chart with specific expectations about what it looks and sounds like when people are communicating effectively, and use that chart to assess the quality of the communication processes as students move through review material in the earliest days of the class.

Offer feedback about what you see and hear. You could also get students' feedback-consider recording the class at work and then showing the recording to students so they can look for good examples of quality communication processes.

Cooperation: You can build and reinforce cooperation skills with traditional community builders, or do so through academic work-whatever makes the most sense to you. In either case, be sure to articulate what quality cooperation looks and sounds like, and then ask students to demonstrate it. Take the time to reflect together on the process and results.

Collaboration: When the class is at a collaborative stage, your job becomes maintenance. Use Google Class to take a quick survey at the start of class, focusing on a topic of the day-this can be a serious topic, but it doesn't have to be. Ask students to give feedback on their homework, to talk about how they approached a project, or to comment on the outcome of the big game the night before.

But what about when conflicts arise? Just remember: Kids want to be safe, just like we want to be safe. They want to be known and liked. They know they've been let down before-by their teachers and by their peers. Their peers will have to earn their trust, and teachers need to facilitate that.

That means setting clear expectations about classroom behavior, including responding to put-downs and unkind words. Such words are harbingers of the next level in the group's development. See them as such-lean into conflicts and refuse to let kids off the hook. If you stand your ground, insist on the behavior you want to see, and keep your sense of humor, you'll get there.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Morning Meetings in Middle and High School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Can we bring the advantages of an elementary school strategy for building a classroom community to the higher grades? ©Shutterstock/ESB Professional Morning meetings are a nearly ubiquitous feature in elementary classrooms. Students gather on a rug to discuss the calendar, the weather, the news, and how they're feeling as the day begins.