Classroom culture sets the tone for the relationship between the teacher and the child and also among the children. As a teacher, it is very important to set a positive classroom culture right at the beginning of the school year. It helps the child feel safe, inspired and included as part of the classroom. It allows them to make mistakes, feel vulnerable and non-judgemental, and learn with openness. The children have a voice and a choice. They feel a sense of belonging, responsibility, and sharing like one big community. The teacher uses leading and probing questions while setting the agreements to help children contribute. Sometimes, the teacher needs to set the consequences if the agreements are not followed.
During my practice teaching at Creative Arts Space (CAS), it was interesting to see the difference in the ways the agreements were set for each grade. During Music and Art, there were children from Pre-K to Grade 1 coming to the CAS. They have their agreements for the CAS, Be Kind, Be Safe and Have Fun.
For Pre-K, the agreements and expectations are set by modeling the behavior and demonstrating the expectations. For instance, when the teacher introduces a new instrument say xylophone, she demonstrates the use of mallets, how to hold them, how to tap them on the xylophone? Then, the children can use the instruments gently and be kind. There was an instance wherein the children were not using the xylophone as per the expectations and the teacher reminded that if the materials are not used gently they will not be available for exploration. If the agreements are not followed the resources and instruments are taken away.
With other grades, the teacher asks, how does being kind with mallet looks like? Do we tap gently or hit hard? What does it mean to be safe while using a mallet? How does have fun look like while playing instruments? This makes the children feel responsible.
With Grade 1, I observed a few additional sets of agreements than CAS. There were agreements around recess time and lunch time, use of bathroom, use of common space and resources and language expectations. There was an instance where the teacher asked the student to get in line and the child replied NO. The teacher reinforced and reminded the language to be used with the teacher and in the classroom through dialogues.
The agreements and expectations are reviewed and revisited by the teacher and children together throughout the day, to add more in case of any instances and definitely after every school break.
I observed that positive classroom culture can be achieved by consistency in the behavior and expectations at all times and should be modeled by the members of the community. If there is an instance, it should be taken up as an opportunity to discuss with the community to set appropriate behavior and expectations.
During my practice teaching at Creative Arts Space (CAS), it was interesting to see the difference in the ways the agreements were set for each grade. During Music and Art, there were children from Pre-K to Grade 1 coming to the CAS. They have their agreements for the CAS, Be Kind, Be Safe and Have Fun.
For Pre-K, the agreements and expectations are set by modeling the behavior and demonstrating the expectations. For instance, when the teacher introduces a new instrument say xylophone, she demonstrates the use of mallets, how to hold them, how to tap them on the xylophone? Then, the children can use the instruments gently and be kind. There was an instance wherein the children were not using the xylophone as per the expectations and the teacher reminded that if the materials are not used gently they will not be available for exploration. If the agreements are not followed the resources and instruments are taken away.
With other grades, the teacher asks, how does being kind with mallet looks like? Do we tap gently or hit hard? What does it mean to be safe while using a mallet? How does have fun look like while playing instruments? This makes the children feel responsible.
With Grade 1, I observed a few additional sets of agreements than CAS. There were agreements around recess time and lunch time, use of bathroom, use of common space and resources and language expectations. There was an instance where the teacher asked the student to get in line and the child replied NO. The teacher reinforced and reminded the language to be used with the teacher and in the classroom through dialogues.
The agreements and expectations are reviewed and revisited by the teacher and children together throughout the day, to add more in case of any instances and definitely after every school break.
I observed that positive classroom culture can be achieved by consistency in the behavior and expectations at all times and should be modeled by the members of the community. If there is an instance, it should be taken up as an opportunity to discuss with the community to set appropriate behavior and expectations.