Respect in Class
November 15, 2013 | Posted in: Class Updates
Ratified in September by students and teachers in our classroom, our Class Consitution takes the role of “class rules” within our classroom.
Building a positive classroom climate is very important to me. Starting on Day 1, our class works hard to develop a community in which everyone is respected and valued. I’m pleased to report that we’re back on the right track after a disappointing week, last week. We had a lot of problems with kids talking at inappropriate times and distracting one another, students speaking unkindly about one another, and a lack of respect for our classroom space and the materials within it. Transitions in class (moving from one activity to another or one location to another) were difficult, as was collaborative group work (since it’s really easy for a purposeful conversation to devolve into something less productive). The kids lost the privilege of sitting in their desk clusters and instead spent a week in “old school” rows (which I dislike a great deal, but are less likely to promote side conversations). Through a great deal of effort, and after several discussions, the class (as a whole) has turned things around, and I’m really pleased with our new path. We’re back in the cherished desk clusters, and collaboration is here again! I hope you’ll take the opportunity to reinforce with your fourth grader the rights we all agreed to as part of our class constitution. (Click on the image for a larger size.)
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