Building a Positive Classroom Environment

Posted on April 8, 2007 
Filed under Examples




Much of my work in this area is built on personal relationships that I build with, and between my students. While technology assists me with this, it is grounded in relationships that are built face-to-face.

First, I always work to have clear expectations and guidelines. These rules and procedures are taught explicitly to the students.  Here are slide shows that are part of that instruction. My first week of class is spent going through the rules and procedures, discussing them, finishing up with a Jeopardy style quiz on what they’ve learned. I also use this page to orient new students to my classroom.

Next, I teach character education explicitly.  Our morning writing is based on a word-of-the-week, so we can discuss what good behavior and character look like, and why they are important. This year, our campus has started using Second Step, to improve students behaviors. This program gives students explicit instruction in how to deal with anger, frustration, etc.

Last, I hold weekly class meetings to assist with conflict resolution. This gives students the opportunity to participate in their own problem solving and be part of a democratic process. I have incorporated the “compliments” portion of the meetings in the class website (look at the lower right column). 

My students are not perfect, but many conflicts have been averted and we our classroom focus is on learning.

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