The school year is back in full swing, and climate in the classroom is being established. How do learners know where to go for material? What do learners do when they enter class? When are learners given the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with their peers? Who are the learners who need a little extra help? A little extra enrichment? A little extra love? What are these learners saying about you and your class when they go home? These are critical questions to ask yourself when building the climate of the classroom. While culture is handled largely at the whole-school level, climate speaks directly to the type of environment we create, and it encompasses all the physical, emotional, and social aspects of learners’ lives. I’ve created and trademarked an acronym to help establish a warm and loving climate in your environment.
Climate is a work of HEART™.
Have clear expectations and procedures.
Do you have a folder/ bin/ binder where learners can grab work they missed? Are things like extra pens/pencils, tissue, paper, and supplies located around the perimeter of the room so as not to draw attention to learners? When learners walk into class, do they know exactly what to start doing and where to look to find this direction? Learners thrive in clean, organized, and routine environments. Ideally, this should start right on the first day when welcoming learners into the environment. Then, these steps are reinforced for the rest of the year. The first day back from breaks is ideal for reviewing processes, expectations, and procedures. If there is an addition or change, reviewing after a break is the best time to add new ones or change existing ones. While seats, topics, furniture arrangements, music, and scents may change, routines and procedures should be consistent all year.
Empower learners to own their environment and education.
Agency of learning and agency of the learning environment go hand in hand with engagement. If learners feel that their voice matters, if learners see that they have a say in where they sit, how they sit, and whether they sit, they have ownership. Giving learners choice boards, options that respect their multiple intelligences, Essais, etc. shows that you respect your learners. This encourages learners to own their own choices and to own their own learning. With great power comes great responsibility. Watch your learners rise to the occasion. More often than not, when learners are given the power and respect to manage themselves and their choices, they don’t want to lose it. They will go above and beyond to ensure that others don’t end the opportunity as well. As learners get older, research has found, “That when a student’s self-efficacy drops, disengagement in school increases” (Anderson et al., 2019). Empowering learners to think for themselves, to make choices on how and where they learn, and with whom, increases engagement. And since we know there is a link between engagement and dropout rates, engagement is not only paramount; learner empowerment is critical.
Allow room for growth and grace.
I had a learner who fell asleep on the bean bag in class one day. No one was allowed to wake him. When next period came in, while greeting my precious gems at the door, I asked them to be as quiet as possible and to not wake him. Five minutes into class, he woke abruptly. I first asked if he was alright. He let me know that soccer practice ran late the night before, and he had just gotten done with running the mile in gym. I thanked him for letting me know. I then asked about his choice of where he sat for class that day. He said that it was not the best decision, and in the future, when he’s tired, he should not choose such a seat. I told him that was a great idea, and I looked forward to him making better choices. Learners will stumble. They are kids. It is our job as an adult and as the teacher to teach them how to make choices correctly. However, lining everyone in rows, in assigned seats, in twenty-five of the same desk-chair combo does not help them to learn decision making. It makes them compliant. We are not preparing learners for the assembly line anymore. We are preparing learners for a future at Google, or Apple, or an open-space work environment, or to work from home. They have to learn now, and we have to give learners this opportunity. That learner didn’t sit in the bean bag for the rest of the year. He knew that after gym he was a little sleepy, and that wouldn’t be the best spot for him. Don’t ever hesitate to commend learners for making the right decision, either; you win more with honey than you do with vinegar. Respect is a two-way street. Allowing learners the grace to fail forward, and to learn and grow from a choice, is how we prepare them for success in their future. They might think twice before snuggling in their bed whilst working from home someday…
Refrain from negatives.
We burn more calories when we smile. Do you ever notice that when you’re happy, the day seems a little lighter? Play your favorite school-appropriate jam while learners are working and entering the class. Dress in some brighter colors. Brighten a learner’s day by smiling at them and letting them know you’re happy they’re there today. Genuine positivity works wonders. I used to grade only what was right with glitter pens or highlighters (never a red pen). Stars all over the papers. Rita Pierson, one of my favorite teachers, says “You see, minus eighteen sucks all the life out of you—plus two says I ain’t all bad”. This same brilliant educator is also the one who reminds us, “you know, kids don’t learn from people they don’t like”. Every rule should be positive, too. What a difference “please arrive on time and ready to learn” makes instead of “do NOT be late”. One summer, I read The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change. Adam Braun’s titles for each chapter were mantras. These mantras became our code of conduct for class that year. While there are thirty chapters, we focused on ten. Some included: “Change your words to change your worth”, “Fess up to your failures”, and “Make your life a story worth telling”. The power of positivity is a strong one. Our actions, our words, and our behaviors can make or break a learner’s day, week, month, or year. Staying positive and putting rules and behaviors in a positive light take away the heavy. At the end of the day, for some of our learners, school is the safest and happiest place in their lives. Make it a great one.
Treat every learner as if they were going to Harvard.
This one is very personal to me. We all remember our favorite teachers. However, we also very much remember our worst, and often times, more vividly. My junior year of high school, I was taking AP composition. We were in small groups reviewing AP questions. When the teacher walked by, I said that I was nervous for the AP exam. She shrugged and said, “Why? It’s not like you’re going to Harvard”. As she walked away, I shrugged it off. But like any throwaway comment ever made, these are the ones that are like detenators in our brains. We rotate around them. We say them over and over, and soon they explode. What if Harvard was my dream school? What if that was the only school to which I was planning to apply? What if my entire bedroom at home was decked in crimson, black, and white? I passed the class and I passed the AP, but I couldn’t stand the class or the teacher. I think, subconsciously, it’s why I journeyed down the path of becoming a high school English educator. And, every year, I started the year by letting my learners know that I believed in them and that I would teach them as if every one of them were going to Harvard. Because if that’s where they wanted to go, I was going to do everything in my power to be their cheerleader. This cheerleading and love of every single one of my precious gems is what led to all of our success—high passing rates, zero referrals, and a deep sense of fulfillment and pride every single day.
You can’t fake authenticity. It’s in you, or it’s not. If it’s not, your learners will see right through it. But if it is, this is what creates a positive climate in your environment. Creating a warm and inviting environment does not mean there are no rules. It does not mean a loss of control. It does not mean that you’re the educator who’s every learner’s friend. Quite the contrary. Learners need structure, and for classroom management, a positive climate, and the acquisition of knowledge to ensue, you need to have HEART™.
References:
Anderson, R. C., Graham, M., Kennedy, P., Nelson, N., Stoolmiller, M., Baker, S. K., & Fien, H. (2019, January 24). Student agency at the crux: Mitigating disengagement in middle and high school. Contemporary Educational Psychology. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361476X1830136X
Braun, A. (2015). The promise of a pencil: how an ordinary person can create extraordinary change. Simon & Schuster.
Pierson, R. (2013, May). Every kid needs a champion. Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion | TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion
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