Kids are struggling.
Teachers are struggling.
Schools are struggling.
We know this. We are living this as two educators who have decided to stay in the profession and absolutely adore our jobs. For so many reasons, no matter where you are teaching, things might seem hard right now. Everyone is looking for solutions, and to be honest, we can’t fix much. What we can do is help shift your perspective by offering you some hope, optimism, and a focus on what you can control in your classroom.
Let’s do a little exercise. Take a couple of minutes to write, draw, or make a mental list of everything that feels heavy right now in relation to your job. It’s probably a lengthy list. You might have these things on your list, because we certainly do: curriculum, assessments, dealing with administration, relationships with colleagues, getting enough coverage when people are sick, to name a few.
And, in addition to all of that, we bet that there is something about students having a difficult time expressing big emotions, students experiencing anxiety and depression, students feeling marginalized or left out, students being defiant or disengaged, having a difficult time developing and maintaining healthy relationships, not knowing how to take accountability, and not realizing that their actions and words have consequences.
If we unpack your list (or ours), you might determine that there is a lot outside of our control–we can’t control budgets, how students spend their time outside of school, or curricular decisions made by the administration. But there are things within our control. So let’s focus on the things we can do.
We can focus on the skills we all need right now to feel a sense of belonging. What do we need? And what do our students need? We all need to feel connected, both with ourselves and with our community. And we all need to feel valued in that community. Classrooms are places where this work can happen, where teachers can develop strong communities to help teach students the skills they need to be kind, self-aware individuals who can work with others to have a positive impact both within the school community and outside of it.
Positive Classroom Communities is our rallying cry for community, play, collaboration, positivity, and overall, hope. We offer activities to build social and emotional developmental skills that you can adapt for your classroom, for your students, and for your needs. The activities are quick, fun, easy to implement, and offer community-building opportunities through the lens of the framework from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).
Social and emotional learning is essential for the well-being of students and staff. In Positive Classroom Communities, we outline this importance; we also share general practices and activities that educators in any school can implement to help build social and emotional skills through the lens of community building. We also offer you a tool for observing students’ social and emotional growth over time so that, like you do with academic subjects, you can use data to drive next steps.
This book is for you! We wrote this with real classrooms in mind. Every lesson has been tried, refined, and loved by elementary students. We are here with you, and we hope this book helps you create a positive classroom community for you and your students, just as it helped us and ours.
