By Jim Parker, 4th Grade Lead Teacher, Mackintosh Boulder
In school, we ask our children every day to do things that push their comfort zones. In order to be able to practice the IB Learner Profile traits of being a Risk Taker, Principled, Inquirer, etc., our students must know that they have a strong community behind them to pick them up when they (metaphorically) fall down.
It is the third week of school. I look around the room as my students begin to share back the results of their first online research attempts. Attempting to answer the question “What is the evidence we have for the Theory of Plate Tectonics? This exercise has been equal parts content, working together with a partner and learning to use the computer as a research tool. Reflecting back to where this community was three weeks ago, I remember how many students would pass when it came time to share. Now, many of them are eager to jump in and share what they have learned with their classmates.
I have always believed that a strong community is built upon shared experiences. As such, I prioritize these shared experiences in the first weeks of school. I make the time to sit down and eat with them as a class. We go out into the field to play games together or partake in more challenging experiences with the low ropes elements on our campus. We laugh together and we learn to be better communicators. I look for and make sure to point out when they are using nice language towards each other and place high praise on the development of kind language and gestures that students make towards one another.
This growing sense of community, of belonging is mirrored in our morning greeting. Most mornings we greet the person on our left and ask “Would you like a hug, hand shake or a high five?” Those first few weeks there was a lot of shy high fives and hand shakes, but last Friday the hugs made it almost all the way around the circle. This growing sense of belonging, of identifying ourselves as a community, a team, a crew is the foundation on which we will build the success of our year together.
If you want to know more about building a classroom community, a resource that guides and informs us at Mackintosh is Responsive Classroom’s First Six Weeks of School. Outdoor education also has a ton of team and community building resources that I love. Check out Wilderdom.com for games that even your family can play to build new, shared experiences, a sense of teamwork and, most of all, fun!