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A Community of Learners: Building a Supportive Learning Environment
By Bob Lenz
11/16/07Recently, a nationally recognized expert in classroom management visited the campuses of Envision Schools to help coach our teachers. Though he had plenty of advice about how we can make our learning environments more structured so student learning is accelerated, he was also effusive about the sense of respect he witnessed between students, between students and teachers, and between adults in the schools.
Like many visitors to our organization’s campuses, he sensed a strong sense of community. A learning community does not just happen; it is created intentionally at every level of a school and organization. At Envision Schools, we employ several strategies to create this type of environment:
Explicit Value
We are explicit that we hold community as a core value. We describe it in our literature, and leaders and teachers state it to students and their parents constantly at events, in private meetings, and in letters home. We also explicitly state to the adults in our organization that we are a professional learning community and that we plan our professional development to help foster and sustain our core value of community.
School and Organizational Structures
We organize our schools and our schedules to build a sense of community. Schools are organized by teams or families, in which a group of educators share a cohort of students. Teachers serve as advisers to sixteen students, and the advisories meet two to three times a week in our lower division (grades nine and ten) and daily in the upper division (grades eleven and twelve). Each week, teachers have three hours of common planning time with content-area colleagues and four hours of facilitated collaboration time with their team or family colleagues. We also build time into our master schedule for at least one community meeting (either by team, division, or whole school) each week.
We meet as a whole network of schools five times each year, and teachers collaborate and share curriculum and project ideas across our schools almost every week, either in person or virtually through email, instant messaging, or our Project Exchange online community.
Classroom Activities and Community Meetings
In the classrooms and advisories where we see the strongest sense of community and respect, we observe teachers regularly facilitating activities to develop these qualities. Most of these teachers greet their students at the door with a handshake or even a hug. These classrooms and advisories have norms or agreements posted prominently in the room. The norms (“Respect each other,” for example, and “Listen”) are not just words on a poster; teachers and students hold each other accountable to them daily.
Students are often organized in circles -- and often without desks. Every class begins with a brief check-in, during which the students and the teacher share how they are feeling, even if it’s just a nonverbal thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Teachers explicitly teach collaboration skills that help groups working on projects to be more successful, and they simultaneously build community. Teachers also confront issues of diversity, race, and class in the context of their curriculum, teaching collaboration while explicitly building a learning community.
Community meetings offer school leaders an opportunity to teach and build the whole school learning community. Each school has developed its own rituals and formats for their meetings: Some schools start each meeting with a chime and an inspirational reading. Others have students facilitate the meetings, and they begin with a quote of the day.
Schools use community meetings to address critical schools issues, to explicitly teach values such as community, and to share information. Sometimes, they’re just about fun -- like one featuring an adviser Hula Hoop contest. Community meetings also serve as an opportunity to showcase student performance in the context of a project. Though every school’s community meeting looks different, the outcomes are the same: Students and teachers feel more connected and part of a community.
As with most aspects of high-quality schools, building community begins with a vision and happens because the school leaders and the teachers intentionally design structures and activities to reach the vision. When our students graduate, we challenge them to lead the formation of community wherever they go, for the rest of their lives. Once you have the privilege to experience true community, you have the obligation to create it.
How do you foster community and respect in your schools? Please share with us.
Building a safe learning environment
Submitted by Victor Diaz (not verified) on March 25, 2008 - 19:16.
I believe that creating a sense of community in our classrooms is a key element to students' success. Not only are we building a learning environment but an environment that is safe and comfortable for them to feel successful and be successful in. I know that I try to build my community from the minute they walk into my classroom by greeting my students at the door as they walk in. I continue this every day of the year not only do I do it in the mornings but every time we enter the classroom my students know that they are not to walk into the room until I am by the door to greet them in whether it is from lunch, music, art, etc... I also do this as they leave, I will stand by the door to dismiss them and wish them a great afternoon this brings closure for the day whether it was a good one or not. This has created a great sense of community and RESPECT!
Building a classroom community
Submitted by Angie (not verified) on March 22, 2008 - 18:23.
I feel it is very important to build a community within your classroom. I build a school family where we all have jobs and expectations. We treat each other with mutual respect and fostering this kind of relationship within the classroom, really create an environment where students can feel comfortable and take risks. I think that if you foster this school family that the students can achieve more because they feel safe and comfortable.
Supporting Our Students
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 30, 2008 - 16:17.
In my school (I teach 8th grade), we have implemented the advisory period- however it could be a more effective use of time. I do see when we do activities to spur on team-building and academic achievement, the students really excel.
I think sometimes schools underestimate the benefit of establishing the connections between students and between teachers and students. When those connections are formed, I find discipline is not a very big issue. We have not tried the community meetings but I was thinking of talking about that idea with my colleagues. I would be curious to hear about what activities are performed at community meetings.
community building
Submitted by Amy Berry (not verified) on January 28, 2008 - 20:58.
I know I have not did a good job establishing a community when I start to have behavior problems. Not much can be established if respect from each person is not established from day one. When we rush to teach before everyone becomes a learning team, valuable time is lost in the long run. Allowing students opportunities to express thier beliefs and thinking about how the classroom should run gives the students a sense of ownership for established rules, procedures, and routines. Make them a part of class organization. Think about how they can help in every aspect of learning. Let them do the thinking and learning. Of course the way to establish this is by getting them actively participating from day one. I think when you base your whole classroom on the students' needs and interests you are going to have a great year! It may take more time establishing everything, but the students will feel a sense of pride for the choices that they help make. They keep the room clean, follow established procedures, keep classroom rules, keep books in the right tubs, remind the other classmates of their responsibilities. When we do it all for them, they don't have to think, problem solve or get involved. Let's face it, the less involved they are, the less ownership they take. I want students who know what thier roles are in my class. They are thinkers, problem-solvers, partners, and learners, and I do not have to tell them. They experience it daily and take the roles on themselves. When certain students do not, I reflect and work on ways to get a needed shift from them. I watch my language. I make sure that my language reveals my belief in them in every circumstance. My thinking is how can I get them in the "driving seat" as quickly as possible. This is a work in progress and I am getting better at this. I know I will continue to grow and learn about community building as long as I am teaching.
I agree with you about
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 29, 2008 - 18:52.
I agree with you about trying to incorporate the students in building a "community" in the classroom. This does seem to help them take more ownership for their own behavior because they know they were a part of creating the rules and regulations and need to follow them. I teach at the elementary level, and I always have the students help to make up our rules for the classroom. All of us then sign the rules so we know that's what we'll be following throughout the year. I know I do like having things a certain way in my classroom; however, I do know it is important that I try and let some of the "jobs" be left for the students to do so they learn responsibility and respect for certain things. Incorporating these "community building" strategies into my teaching is something that I will continue to try...I know it will take time and patience each year for me to do. As you said, "this is a work in progress." I know I will continue to learn even more about building a community in the classroom as well.
School Culture
Submitted by Rohit Sood (not verified) on January 2, 2008 - 05:17.
I have taught in a free progress school called Mirambika, New Delhi, India for three years facilitating children in their learning journey. Over the years I have been working with National organizations of repute to bring in school reform. In the end I feel the School culture is a place which needs a lot of intervention. How the school, its culture and people around the child help him grow and nurture is of immense importance. I have seen it and experienced it in Mirambika, New Delhi with 130 children which is located in the beautiful 30 acre campus of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and not to forget the Rishi Valley School run by the Krishnamurti Foundation in Chittor, Andhra Pradesh in a larger scale. It is a full fledged school and a great example how school life extends to the community.
The challenge I am facing right now to build this school culture in a conventional setting in a city school like New Delhi. A big school with 1500 children and 0ver 120 staff. Is there a system, process, model I could follow to build the culture, heritage, have a space for all engaged in the child's environment to learn as well. How Values, life skills, professional development and the Spiritual dimension which is most missing in our lives become part of the School, Community, Town, State, Nation and the World at large. Help me begin somewhere with children and parents around me. I would love to learn from schools, educators and enlightened people working and struggling in this area.
Ultimately I have to be answerable to everybody in the picture about career choices, competition, globalisation, the government about my dream. There are New Age schools which are open to ideas and have invited me to work. I am at the moment of conceptualizing the idea. Please share more. A learner and aspirant. Rohit
Formats of comm. meetings
Submitted by Reynaldo (not verified) on December 29, 2007 - 00:01.
I'm looking for resources and ideas on how to run a comm. meeting.
I already like the idea of a school chant/anthem.
Then regular house cleaning announcements, and then a quote or a reading.
I've read all your responses and they are very helpful.
I find that a supportive
Submitted by Mrs. M (not verified) on November 28, 2007 - 23:16.
I find that a supportive "community" in a classroom is vital for each student to be successful. This article mainly focuses on the secondary level of education. I teach elementary which is the root system for students to understanding what a community environment is made up of. I demand a high level of respect from my students, but they get that same amount of respect from me. The Essential 55 written by Ron Clark was a tool that helped me form a postive community in my classroom my first year of teaching. Although I don't follow each and every part of Ron Clark's essential 55, I have continued to use the parts I felt were most important each year thereafter. I would like to hear what more elementary schools and their teachers do to encourage a postive community within their school.
Community Building
Submitted by Dorothy (not verified) on November 28, 2007 - 19:22.
I believe building community is vital for a successful and productive school year. Students want to feel a sense of belonging. Students want to feel safe. They want to be able to talk to their teachers in confidence without any hesistation. Each year I spend about a good first month, building on the core values in our school. They are community, respect, and effort. I believe when children are exposed to values constantly, they eventually will practice or carry out these values. As a teacher, I am straightforward with my students and tell them that my duties as their teacher is keep them safe and comfortable and teach them their curriculum for the year. You know you have made a difference when your students ask you to loop with the class for the next school year.
Classrom Community
Submitted by Evelena (not verified) on November 28, 2007 - 17:51.
I think that it is very important to have a close knit school community. This builds a sense of belonging for the students, parents, teachers, and the administration. It makes the school environment condusive to learning and provides a sense of security.
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