1.3 Building Community – Demo
1.3 Building Community
As a substitute teacher, you will be faced with a challenging task of dealing with a classroom of students whom you do not know. Whether you are the substitute for the day or for a longer period of time, classroom management, or the skills and techniques that you use to keep students organized, focused, attentive, and on task are essential. When classroom management strategies are executed effectively, teachers minimize the behaviors that impede learning for both individual students and groups of students, while maximizing the behaviors that facilitate or enhance learning (The Glossary of Education Reform).
While good classroom management is essential, it is not the only factor that will contribute to high student achievement. It is just as important to create a strong sense of community among your students. Community building must focus on creating a classroom culture that is caring, challenging, safe and supportive.
The first step to doing this successfully is to understand the developmental needs (see Figure A.) of the learners in the classroom. Chip Wood’s text, Yardsticks, helps us to understand the child as an individual. “Every child is a full, living individual with his or her own needs, interested, fears and desires. And although educators must concern themselves with the child’s future success, the child is very much a person in the present moment” (Wood, 12). Getting the chance to understand a child’s developmental needs while giving them opportunities to perfect their naturally emerging capacities allow for substitute teachers to create a responsive classroom culture that is unique to the needs of the learners. For example, when reviewing Chip Wood’s, Common Developmental Traits by Age chart, a teacher who is assigned to a second grade classroom will understand that students at the age of 7 need rules and routines, seek relationships, and can work well alone and in pairs. Substitute teachers can then begin to develop intentional lessons that may include a memory game to activate cognitive development and a lego activity to reinforce fine motor skills.
High school students develop at widely varied rates. (Morin, Developmental Milestones for High-Schoolers). At this stage understanding the physical, cognitive, and social emotional milestones can help substitute teachers adapt and plan to the maturity level of their students.
DEVELOPMENTAL NEEDS - FIGURE A.
Cognitive development means how children think, explore and figure things out. It is the development of knowledge, skills, problem solving and dispositions, which help children to think about and understand the world around them. Brain development is part of cognitive development (Bjorklund, David F. Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences. Stamford, CT: Wadsworth Publishing, 2004).
Social and Emotional Development (SEL) is the process through which young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitude to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)).
Speech and language development are the skills we use to communicate with others. We form these skills during the first years of life. Speech is making the sounds that become words - the physical act of talking. Language is our system of using words to communicate. It includes using words and gestures to say what we mean, and understanding what others say (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association).
Fine motor development refer to the child’s ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands and fingers, to pick up small objects, hold a spoon, turn pages in a book, or use a crayon to draw (Encyclopedia of Children's Health).
Gross motor development are the abilities required in order to control the large muscles of the body for walking, running, sitting, crawling, and other activities (Encyclopedia of Children's Health).
Strategy Backpack: Review the developmental needs chart, and think of ways you can find resources to meet the needs of students in grades K-12.
The “Strategy Backpack” is an opportunity to download resources, guidance, or working documents to support your future journey as a substitute teacher. To leverage these additional resources, create a Strategy Backpack folder in your Google Drive or on your hard drive. Review the materials provided, and save the information you find compelling in your personal folder. Strategy Backpack resources are completely optional to download or complete.
After you get an understanding of the developmental needs of the learners in the classroom then you need to know the power of relationship building. In the article, Cultural Responsiveness Starts with Real Caring by Zaretta Hammond, the foundation of culturally responsive instruction is not technical, but relational. It’s about authentic caring. There is an actual neuroscience of caring and being cared for. When we feel cared for, our brain is filled with neurotransmitters and hormones like oxytocin, the same hormone that makes moms fall in love with their babies even after the pain and effort of labor. These “happy chemicals” tell our pre-frontal cortex, the thinking part of the brain, that all is safe socially, emotionally and physically. All systems are a go for learning. (Hammond, 2013). Hammond coins the term, “warm demander”, a call of action for culturally responsive educators to build rapport and connection with students. The idea is that positive relationships can be established by showing “tough love”, having high expectations and believing that all students can rise to their fullest potential. Educators must demonstrate “care and push.” Students need to know that the adults working with them genuinely care and have their best interest at heart.
WATCH: Warm Demander
Watch this video to learn more about being a warm demander
Strategy Backpack: Review The Warm Demander Chart and think about ways you can implement the characteristics of being a warm demander. Add this chart to your strategy backpack as a reminder of habits that must be developed to build community.
The “Strategy Backpack” is an opportunity to download resources, guidance, or working documents to support your future journey as a substitute teacher. To leverage these additional resources, create a Strategy Backpack folder in your Google Drive or on your hard drive. Review the materials provided, and save the information you find compelling in your personal folder. Strategy Backpack resources are completely optional to download or complete.
Games, icebreakers and incentives are great ways to get to know students, and for students to get to know you. They are also great ways to build routines and structures and work well during transitions. Classroom incentives can also help to motivate students and build community. As a substitute teacher come prepared with a bag of developmentally appropriate activities that you can use to foster a warm classroom culture.
Strategy Backpack: Check out these games and incentive activities to get you started.
The “Strategy Backpack” is an opportunity to download resources, guidance, or working documents to support your future journey as a substitute teacher. To leverage these additional resources, create a Strategy Backpack folder in your Google Drive or on your hard drive. Review the materials provided, and save the information you find compelling in your personal folder. Strategy Backpack resources are completely optional to download or complete.