The benefits of a classroom community go beyond a warm and loving environment. Students who feel connected and safe have fewer behavioral issues, take more academic risks and support one another. Classroom community leads to engaged students.
Increased Trust to Take Academic Risks
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows that people need their basic needs met before they can focus on other things. For example, students must have their physiological needs met before focusing on school. A student that is hungry is not thinking about math but instead thinking about their growling belly.
Likewise, a student that does not feel safe is not concerned about social studies. Classroom community builds an environment that feels safe. Students build trust and community with their instructors and classmates. They feel supported when they have a bad day or get a question wrong.
Students will take more academic risks when they feel supported. Students will be engaged in the learning process. They will raise their hands and volunteer answers. Students will be more involved and active in group work. Increased academic engagement equals increased academic scores.
Decreased Behavior Issues
Students don’t learn from teachers they don’t like. They also don’t listen to teachers they don’t like. Correcting misbehavior is more manageable when students trust you. A simple correction works instead of a battle of wills.
Students take ownership of the policies and procedures when they build them as a community. They want to follow them because they own them. Instant buy-in makes behavior issues decrease. The behavior issues you have in class can be corrected with less struggle. Students just need a reminder.
Feeling Ownership of Their Environment and Learning
The benefits of classroom community inherently bring ownership. It isn’t your classroom it becomes our classroom. Our classroom is a place that should be protected. Students enforce the rules because it is a place of safety and peace that they helped create.
Students begin supporting one another and reaching for a common goal. They feel empowered. Empowered students have confidence. With confidence, students take more academic risks and stand up for unacceptable behavior. Students will begin to support and challenge one another to do their best. Check out MyMindTrek.com for free resources you can use to build community in y our classroom.
SEL Unfiltered
Do you want to hear more? Check out the rest of our series on Career Readiness on our SEL Unfiltered podcast, wherever you stream your podcasts.
Check out other episodes in our Classroom Community series, including What is classroom community?, Strategies for Educators – Creating Classroom Community, and How to Create Classroom Community Virtually.
Game of the Week
Every week on SEL Unfiltered, we like to bring you a game or activity. You can use the game with your students, in the classroom, or in a small group. This week Kaitlin and I played Yay for the Day!
Yay for the Day! is a simple check-in or Take 5 that you can use with students to help them focus on the positives. Yay for the Day! is a great activity to do at the end of the day or during a check-out meeting. You can allow every student to share or pick a few students to share each day. Students simply pick one positive them that happened to them that day.
Students not only think about their Yay for the Day, but then they hear others. Hearing other students positive remarks allows students to focus on the positive things happening instead of dwelling on the negative.
