Students need to feel comfortable in a classroom environment if we want them to learn. The second they feel uncomfortable their mind goes into survival mode and any information that we feed that them that is not necessary for their survival is not absorbed. Luckily, there are many things we can do to ensure our students feel comfortable and ready to learn.
1) Learn About Your Students
This is the first step in creating a successful classroom environment. At the beginning of every year I make a point to get to know my students within the first week. Doing this helps me learn about them, but also shows to them that I am interested in them as a person, not just a student. I do this in two steps:
- Questionnaire: At the beginning of the first week of school I give the students a questionnaire asking them to share information about themselves and their interests.
Free Getting To Know You Questionnaire
When You Sign Up for Our Newsletter - Conferences: At the end of the first week of school I conference with each student for two minutes to get to know each student individually while the rest of the class is working on an assignment. I go over their questionnaire with them and try to make connections. "Oh, I see your favorite movie is High School Musical, I've seen that a dozen times. I still get the song Breaking Free stuck in my head on a regular basis. Who's your favorite character?" Boom! I just made a connection with them that will make them feel comfortable with me and I showed them that I value their opinions.
2) Stand at the Door and Greet Every Student
At the beginning of every class period I stand at the door and greet each and every student. Now that I know about each student, what shows they like, what sports they play, etc, I will use that to start a quick conversation with them as they walk through the door. "How did your soccer game go last night?", "Did you watch the newest episode of Liv and Maddie last night?", "How did your Wednesday night Piano lesson go?" It's sometimes impossible to converse with every student but I make a point to make a personal connection with each student at least twice a week and greet everyone every day!
3) Give Your Students Choice
As teachers we are given a great deal of curriculum to teach. That being said, the way we teach it is up to us. I give my students a variety of choice within every unit I teach because it shows them I value their interests, skills and opinions.
- Differentiated Reading: I give them the option of choosing from different levels of reading when I give them a primary source. They are given the average reading and a more challenging reading. I find that most students chose the correct level. It shows them that I want to challenge them to achieve their personal bests because I believe in them.
- Different Topics: When studying a certain area of study I let the students chose which topic to look into about that area. For instance, when learning about the advance culture of ancient Greece I let the students chose to look into either sports, literature, theater, art or architecture.
- Project Choice: With each project I give the students get to chose what type of project they want to do. The choices usually range from essays to creating newspaper articles to building 3D models. For instance, every year I give my World History Students my Early Civilization Artifact Project and I ask the students to pick an artifact from early civilization that represents a political, social or economic advancement and they have four choices on how to represent that artifact. This gives them a large range of options and really allows me to see what they know and what skills they have.
4) Reward Your Students
Students want to know you care about them. Encourage them and show them you are proud of them when you are. If the students work hard as a class, let them know you noticed. For instance, my students spent a week doing a writing workshop, where we really worked on how to write a good DBQ essay. The students worked very hard and this was shown to me in their final essays. I was so proud of them, and I wanted them to know I appreciated their hard work, so the next day we played Kahoot, a crowd favorite, and I brought in cookies. We played multiple rounds of it and the winners got prizes. The questions were history related, but the students were having so much fun they didn't realize they were learning.
5) Share Personal Successes and Failures
Students want you to be relatable. They see you as a successful adult who is doing well for themselves. Share with them your struggles and share your successes, this will remind them that you are a normal person, even if seeing you in the grocery store will always baffle them. For instance, I play in a softball league and my students know this. Every Friday morning they ask me how my games went. I tell them that I missed the pop fly that came right to me, but I also tell them when I got a double to tie the game. Doing this helps them to get to know me which helps build a respected dynamic between us.
Although there are many ways to create a positive classroom environment, these five have worked very well for me. Creating this positive classroom environment has not only helped my students feel comfortable, which allows them to learn, but with such a positive classroom environment I also have minimal behavior issues because the students know I respect them and this helps them respect me.
