Community Building Doesn't End in September

I used to love the first week of school. Over my fifteen years as a classroom teacher, I came to realize the importance of taking time to teach my high school students “my system” and “how to learn” in my classroom. 

I also had some fun activities that would help me get to know my students quickly. However, once we got past that first week, I felt like I had what I needed to build relationships with my students. What I noticed, though, is that by October, I had included fewer relationship-building practices and placed more focus on work/collaboration.

Don’t get me wrong, collaboration protocols can build relationships, but I realized I had assumed students could continue building relationships without my intentional guidance. This was not the case. And if I were in the classroom right now, I know I’d want to rethink how I might maintain community building throughout the year, not just in the first week of school.

With that in mind, here are three practices  I’m thinking about to help you start strong and stay connected throughout the year:

#1: Create Agreements With Students

If there’s something I’ve become more convinced of through my observations of students, my own school-aged children, and even myself as a learner, it’s that people are generally more connected to their work and motivated to do the work if they feel like they have a voice in defining how they will do the work. This makes sense. If we feel like we belong to whatever community we are a part of, we will begin to take ownership of the work AND ownership of maintaining the community practices we co-created.

But what would this look like in practice if I were to try it again?

#2: Making Knowing Every Student an Ongoing Practice

One of my favorite “getting to know you” activities with students in that first week of school was having them share 5 fun facts about themselves. 

They would make paper hands, write the points on each finger, and then decorate the hand however they wanted. These hands would fill my bulletin board, and between classes, I’d often walk to the board to review these facts. I could begin associating different things with each student - and honestly, I loved some of the things I learned. Some students were the oldest of their siblings; some were only children. Some played all the sports, and some loved rock music (not sure that’s a thing anymore).  This was a great activity. But more often than not, the fun-fact sharing ended here.

As a former English teacher, I wish I had used the “letter to the teacher/student” format to kick off my class and get to know students. As I think about it more, this could work in any classroom because it’s a handwritten conversation between you and your students. 

If I could try this activity in place of my original one, here’s what this practice would have looked like:

#3: Design Conversations So Every Student Has a Way In

My English classroom was discussion-based. This was great for me, but it could be very challenging for a handful of students who were quiet, anxious, or just “not the type” of student who liked to answer every question. 

I should know because I was this kind of student. I was soft-spoken, my heart would race if I thought I might get called on, and truly, I had no desire to answer the questions - I knew the same 3 people would be the ones to answer, so it was easier to just let them do it.

You’d think, because I was the type of student who was good with just “observing” the discussion, that I would be more mindful about finding ways to include all students.

 I was … sort of. But I’ll admit, there were still times where the same students were the ones dominating the discussion over and over - even if I intentionally tried to include other voices. I was really good about giving students time to think for themselves, but I’m just not sure I was great about providing a consistent way for students to share their thoughts with me that didn’t rely on a student taking the lead to share the information with the class.

Here’s what I would do differently if I could implement this practice instead:

Where to Start?

If there’s one thing I remember about my days in the classroom, it’s the feeling of having too many things to change and not enough time to change it all. So, to help you choose where to start, consider what small improvement your classroom might need at this moment.

If your classroom needs…

Once you’ve tried the first small step, decide what sustainability might look like for you and for your students, because there is no right or wrong time of the year to build (or keep building) relationships.