Developing a Positive Classroom Community

I believe that students who are a part of a positive and accepting classroom community will learn exponentially better than students in a negative or condescending environment. As teachers we need to follow HOPE standard H3 Honor the classroom/school community as a milieu for learning. Starting on the first day of school, we should strive to develop a supportive, caring, and accepting classroom community. This is no easy task, but is something we should stress in our classroom daily.

A strategy for reminding your students daily about how to act in the classroom and as citizens of our nation is through daily class meetings. In my classroom we start our meetings by gauging the stress or safety level of each student by a hand signal (bear claw looking hand if stressed or feeling unsafe, relaxed cat’s paw if a little stressed or feeling a little unsafe, and a closed…