Building a School Community

School Community Requirements

A community is a place where everyone works together for a common goal. In order to have a community, you need to have three things happening in your school.

• Respect - of self and others
• Responsibility -  for yourself and that of your group
• Relationships - the ability to work collaboratively in a group and set aside all your differences.

Connecting the Community and Education

Every school, like every community, has its own distinct culture, values, and

rules. By building a community in the school, teachers create a common feel

connected to others. For children to participate in a school community - to

relate positively to others and become successful learners - their basic needs for

sustenance, safety, and belonging must be met. Only after basic needs are met can

human beings crave more.

• Physiological needs - the most basic needs of living creatures. Children who are hungry think about their bellies instead of learning.
• Safety - the feeling of security, comfort, and being out of danger. When teachers create a safe classroom community, children are able to positively relate to others, explore their environment, and engage in learning.
• Belongingness - the feeling of being accepted and loved. In an effort to seek acceptance and love from adults, these children often exhibit behavior that tests acceptance. These children need adults who can create a school environment where everyone feels accepted and valued.
• Self-esteem - the sense of one’s own worth. Children who feel competent as learners are more open to new experiences, better able to empathize with others, and more willing to persevere in learning tasks than are children who consistently feel inadequate.

How to Get Your School Started

Discuss with your students about the characteristics of a team. 
Have a team building vocabulary word of the day or week, such as respect, responsibility, cooperation, dependability, loyalty, etc. 
Build lessons and activities. 
Divide your class into small groups or teams. 
Assign specific duties to each member. 
Have the group come up with a team name, symbol, logo, mascot, etc. 

Integrate team building activities into your curriculum.

* Work on a math problem as a team.
* Work on a science or social studies project as a group.

* Write a story about their team.
* Read a story as a team using buddy reading, and then present the story in play form to the rest of the class.

* Design a poster with a team name and a self portrait of each member.

* Design and decorate a classroom bulletin board on an academic theme.

For the first week or so of school, have a “question of the day” which would be a daily question that students would answer about themselves.  If time is an issue, have them pair and share their responses with a different partner each day.