Are you ready for some back to school madness? I am teaming up with some AMAZING bloggers to give you some of our top back to school tips so you can start the year off right.
Oh, and make sure you keep reading – you MIGHT find a chance to win yourself a $100 TPT gift card.
How it works:
Each blogger is writing a tip that they think is GREAT for back to school. Make sure you head to each blog to read all of the tips!
Here, we are going to talk about Student connections
With building student connections, I truly believe that you need to have a talk about FAMILY.
No, I am not talking about your family or your students’ family. I am talking about treating each other like family.
I have talked before about creating an environment where you celebrate your students. To build on that, I want to talk to you about building a sense of family in your classroom.
Treating each other like family will build on respect
After you give your manners lesson (but on a different day), talk to your students about how they treat members in their family. Lead a pretty large discussion about this.
Some things to talk about:
- How do you treat your parents?
- How do you treat your brothers and sisters?
- How do they treat you?
- How would you feel if you saw someone making fun of someone in your family?
- How would you feel if someone in your family is hurt?
Let your students know this is exactly what they are going to think of when they see their classmates and you. It is a VERY quick and VERY simple tool to use and it is something every teacher should be doing.
Stick up for one another.
Support one another.
Love one another.
These connections are SO important – With them, you will have a great year my friend, I am sure of it.
Make sure to enter our drawing below. You will have a chance of winning a $100 TPT gift card! You can hop over to Jen at Two Little Birds for a tip on tackling back to school paperwork.
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Teaching respect is vital, thank you for the tips!
I dedicate an activity daily the first 2-3 weeks to build relationships in the class between both peers and adults & send positive notes home at least once/week/student reinforcing their positive peer interactions.
I dedicate a couple of weeks to teach respect and getting to know our “new” family. It is so important!
I dedicate a couple of weeks to teach respect and getting to know our “new” family. It is so important!
This is so true! Teaching respect with our “new” family in the classroom is important!
Kids are lacking in respect and they need to see it modeled and have it taught at school!!!
Great tips! One way I create a sense of community in my classroom is with daily Morning Meetings, during which we cycle through each student getting to share something with the class. Then, two students can respond with a question or a comment. Helping my littles get to know each other as people and to build connections with each other is so powerful in creating that feeling of family.
We create a family through a lot of whole class discussions, cooperative activities, and modeling/practicing loving behaviors.
I totally agree! I always try to instill the concept that we are a classroom family!!!