Getting to Know One Another: Building Classroom Community

When my CT and I first met, she informed me that she incorporated a surfer theme throughout the year. She then let me have some creative freedom in terms of how I wanted to incorporate this theme into a bulletin board. She then gave me a cutout surfboard for each student and gave me a few ideas as to how I wanted the students to use the surfboards in order to present information about themselves. One avenue was to incorporate a picture book, and I choose one entitled How To Be by Lisa Brown. I then modeled how the students were to fill out their surfboards, which incorporated writing three adjectives or phrases that described qualities on how a person should act in order to be that particular student. For example, I modeled that in order to be Ms. Sample, be courageous, be fun, and be creative. This I felt built our classroom community right from the start for each student presented their surfboard and they were put on display on the bulletin board onside of the room. The entire school community was able to learn about the students of our class and I felt that each student, even if they knew a majority of the others, learned something new about one another. I feel that it is so important to have activities throughout the year that enhance the dynamic among the members of the group and I was thrilled to initiate the first of many activities that built a core community of learners.