Make a note on the friendly atmosphere in your school
Answers
Answer:
1. Address Student Needs
Remember that students, like adults, have not only physical needs but also important psychological needs for security and order, love and belonging, personal power and competence, freedom and novelty, and fun. Students are driven to meet all of these needs all the time, not just two or three of them. When teachers intentionally address these needs in the classroom, students are happier to be there, behavior incidents occur far less frequently, and student engagement and learning increases.
2. Create a Sense of Order
All students need structure and want to know that their teacher not only knows his content area, but also knows how to manage his classroom. It is the teacher’s responsibility to provide clear behavioral and academic expectations right from the beginning—students should know what is expected of them all the time. Another important way to create a sense of order is by teaching students effective procedures for the many practical tasks that are performed in the classroom. For example, teach students how to:
Enter the classroom and become immediately engaged in a learning activity
Distribute and collect materials
Find out about missed assignments due to absence and how to make them up
Get the teacher’s attention without disrupting the class
Arrange their desks quickly and quietly for various purposes: in rows facing the front for direct instruction, in pairs for collaborative learning, in groups of four for cooperative learning, and in a large circle for class discussions
3. Greet Students at the Door Every Day
As students enter your classroom, greet each one at the door. Explain that you want students to make eye contact with you, give you a verbal greeting, and—depending on the age of the students—a high five, fist bump, or handshake. This way, every student has had positive human contact at least once that day. It also shows students that you care about them as individuals. If a student was disruptive or uncooperative the day before, it gives you an opportunity to check in, explain your “every day is a clean slate” philosophy, and express optimism for that class (“Let’s have a great day today”).
4. Let Students Get to Know You
Students come in to the classroom with preconceived perceptions of teachers. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it can be an obstacle. I wanted my students to perceive me as a trustworthy, three-dimensional human being rather than as the two-dimensional perception of an “English teacher” that they may already have. Since the only way to impact people’s perceptions is to provide them with new information or new experiences, I would give students a quiz about me during the first week of school. (Of course, it didn’t count.) I’d have them take out a piece of paper, number it from 1 to 10, and answer questions about me. Things like: Do I have children of my own? Where did I grow up? What is something I value? What is something I do for fun? What other jobs have I had besides teaching?
After the quiz, we would go over the answers as a class while I shared a slideshow of pictures of my children, my hometown, and representations of things that are important to me, like family, education, a strong work ethic, fairness, and so on. (I would even get a laugh out of some of their answers.) Students enjoy learning about their teachers, and the quiz gave me an opportunity to share who I am, what I value, and what experiences I bring to teaching.
If the “first week quiz” isn’t something you’re comfortable with, think of other ways you can share with your students:
Who you are
What you stand for
What you will do for students and what you won’t do for them
What you will ask of your students and what you won’t ask of them
5. Get to Know Your Students
The more you know about your students’ cultures, interests, extracurricular activities, personalities, learning styles, goals, and mindsets, the better you can reach them and teach them. Some ways of getting to know your students:
Educate yourself about their cultures
Talk to them
Assign journal prompts and read and respond to them
Attend extracurricular events
Have students complete interest inventories or surveys
Have students complete learning style and personality assessments
Hold regular class meetings
Play team-building games with students