Positive relationships within the classroom often can bring about better attendance, increased achievement of goals, and better collaboration techniques, studies have shown.
But in many classrooms, teaching strategies including getting-to-know you activities often go by the wayside as the year stretches on.
With that at the forefront of many teachers’ minds, today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, who is a veteran elementary educator based in Upstate New York, takes a look at some teaching strategies you can use to build a sense of community within your classroom well past August.
Janelle’s ideas include classroom games like:
- Mingling
- This or That
- Venn Again
- And More!
Janelle sums up her article thusly: “Ultimately, building a sense of community that lasts stops happening after the first two weeks of school -- it takes some time and patience. You are the one who can help to create a loving and nurturing classroom environment where your students feel safe and comfortable to learn.”
How do you build a sense of community in your classroom? Do you have any tips that you would like to share? Please leave your ideas below, we would love to hear them.
How to Motivate Students to Learn Things That Only Make Sense in School
Also today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributor Jordan Catapano tells educators how to answer the frequently uttered, rhetorical question, “When am I going to use this?”
It’s a question that students ask when teachers seem to be “Teaching to the test.”
He notes that teachers should often note that through their teaching, educators are also getting students to:
- Navigate the social spectrum.
- Use new technology for academic and personal pursuits.
- Think critically and apply new information.
In closing, Jordan says, “When we teach students that learning only provides immediate, practical application, we overlook the deeper and further reaching implications of a rich education. Let’s commit to understanding the “Why” of what we teach and explaining to students both the immediate and long-term, academic and real-world applications for what we’re pursuing.”
How do you approach the real-world and academic components of teaching? Do you see this distinction yourself, or are there other ways of looking at how students applying their learning?
