Tips for Teachers: Thriving Classrooms
The Importance of Intentional Beginnings and Endings
Intentional beginnings and endings promote healthy learning environments that support academic, physical, psychological, and social well-being in K-12 classrooms. This article brings practical hands-on advice for teachers everywhere who may be looking for a fresh start to this school year in January after navigating the fall and winter holidays. Now is the time to make plans for a strong start to 2024, as well as to end 2023 on a good note. In this article, Amelia Azul Elgas, a former classroom teacher who now works in the WGU School of Education as a Learning Experience Designer and Online Community & Engagement Specialist with the Center for Professional Learning shares activities teachers can implement today that promote thriving and bring a sense of community and balance to the classroom.
“Thriving classrooms are the result of intentional and holistic education,” Azul Elgas said. “Research shows us that focusing on character qualities throughout the year provides a solid foundation for academic learning to flourish. The data shows us that this work, done intentionally and according to empirical-based evidence, can promote student community and belonging, improve academic outcomes, facilitate teacher and student retention, increase positive social experiences, and reduce student disciplinary issues.”
Fun, engaging student-centered activities like those listed in this article can build student confidence and capabilities by focusing on character qualities such as teamwork, compassion, empathy, intellectual engagement, and creativity while supporting the character-social-emotional learning of all students in the classroom. These activities can and should be integrated and aligned with your school and classroom Community Agreements such as Responsibility, Self-Discipline, Friendship, Courage… - or whatever specific qualities your school is emphasizing. If you’re not familiar with community agreements or how to create them, these are guidelines for the interaction you co-create with your students that create safe and constructive learning environments while giving students voice and belonging. We’ll share some resources below about these agreements including some models for creating your classroom agreements.
“Before we dive into the activities, let’s talk about the science behind this,” Azul-Elgas said. “There are a number of significant studies about the positive effects of Character and Social Emotional Development in K-12 schools.” According to a meta-analysis of 213 rigorous studies of social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools, students who received high-quality, evidence-based SEL programming demonstrated:
- Better academic performance: achievement scores an average of 11 percentile points higher than students who did not receive systematic SEL instruction.
- Improved attitudes and behaviors: greater motivation to learn, deeper commitment to school, increased time devoted to schoolwork, and better classroom behavior.
- Fewer negative behaviors: decreased disruptive behaviors, aggression, delinquent acts, and disciplinary referrals.
- Reduced emotional distress: fewer reports of student depression, anxiety, stress, and social withdrawal.
A follow-up meta-analysis examining longitudinal studies found that participation in an SEL program had a lasting impact on these outcomes up to 18 years later, regardless of a student’s race, socioeconomic background, or school location. A 2022 meta-analysis of character development programs echoes many of these positive findings, along with a 2023 SEL meta-analysis which included 424 studies from 53 countries, reflecting 252 discrete Universal School-based Social Emotional Learning (USB SEL) interventions, involving 575,361 students. Results endorsed that, compared to control conditions, students who participated in USB SEL interventions experienced significantly improved skills, attitudes, behavior, school climate and safety, peer relationships, school functioning, and academic achievements. “I’ve tried everything I’m recommending here in my classrooms. The data and research support it, but most of all I saw first-hand the positive impact on my students.” These activities were used in a K-1 class but could be adopted for pre-K through 6th grade. “We’ll look at four topics – Beginning of the Year, End of the Year, Beginning of the Day, and End of the Day.”
Beginning of the Year
Get to Know Me Poster Gallery
Azul-Elgas emphasizes the need to introduce activities that allow students and teachers to know each other better and build community and empathy throughout the year. “I like an ‘About Me’ poster exercise early in the school year and then continue these types of activities throughout the year where students share their interests, goals, and backgrounds. For the ‘About Me’ poster I start by sharing my own poster and reading a few books about diverse home lives, so students can see examples and be encouraged to share authentically.
I give the assignment on Friday, so they have the weekend, as well as some class time on Monday to work on it. The assignment is to come in with a poster that tells us something they want us to know about them and their unique story,” she said. She suggests several seed suggestions such as something about their family or caregivers, their favorite activity, favorite animals or pets, a place that makes them feel calm, the best vacation, or trip they’ve taken, and why - something personal. They are invited to make posters (paper or digital) but are free to be creative – it may include photos, writing a story or poem, drawings, or a combination.
Student voice and choice are key components of creating thriving learning environments. “We’d like each to include a photo of them and their name, so their peers can identify each poster. When they bring in their posters, we place them all around the room. Volunteers can tell us what is on their poster, as the class practices active listening, then we do a ‘gallery walk’ and put all posters on tables or walls and students go from poster to poster, looking for commonalities they share with classmates or questions they have for each other.
It’s a great way for students to connect to one another and our community. We keep the posters up for at least the first few months, but they could last all year” she said. As the year progresses, I continue to find ways for students to bring their authentic selves into the classroom. With each assignment and activity, I ask, “How can I allow students to bring their interests, voice and background into this assignment?"
Classroom Agreements
At the beginning of the year, we create classroom agreements. They are revisited throughout the year especially when coming back to class after winter or spring breaks. When returning from breaks we look at the agreements together and intentionally re-establish them. This reorients us to the positive classroom culture we established before the break.
For example, when starting each lesson take a moment to ask questions of the students about what they will need from the Community Agreements to succeed, as demonstrated in this excellent video from Edutopia (embed player). For example, “How do we demonstrate that we are listening with respect when someone is reading or talking?”
Work your school's character qualities into this process. For example, you may have an agreement about how to ask questions if a student is speaking. How will they respectfully express an opposing viewpoint? These agreements become powerful contracts for classroom collaboration and respect. After brainstorming ideas, write up the agreement and make classroom signage all students get to sign. You can read more about classroom agreements here and here.
Starting the Day
Greet them at the Door
“Greet your students at the door. I greeted mine by name and asked “…high-five, handshake, hug, or smile?” (It’s good to include a no-touch option.) “Let them choose their greeting each morning based on how they feel that day. Once again, here is the power of student voice and choice. There are some great videos online of teachers who let each student develop a signature greeting that the teacher learned and returned if you prefer that approach. Through each student’s greeting, I gain immediate insights into how they may be feeling or entering the classroom that day.”
The Morning Classroom Circle
As students enter the class, they go to our daily circle area in the room. “An effective morning circle creates predictability, routine, safety, and belonging,” Azul-Elgas said. “It may also tie into academic content, but the most important aspect of the circle is creating a safe and inclusive community that sets the context of the classroom/school. For the first month of circles, the teacher will lead the circle calling on students with questions and readings. As the school year progresses students can lead the circles using the same format the teacher has modeled for the first month or two.”
Open with a Song
“In my class, we started with a song each morning. This works beautifully with young children who love to sing together,” she said.
Mindfulness/Self-Regulation
“Then we did a one-minute self-awareness/self-regulation exercise,” said Azul-Elgas. “This usually involved three intentional deep breaths with their hands on their hearts and their tummies. I also used a zones of regulation poster and asked them to identify their zone in their minds. It’s amazing how well children respond to breathwork and mindfulness exercises. Often, just those 3 breaths got most of us back to the green zone. I used this throughout the day and encouraged students to use it, and similar exercises, as needed.”
The Morning Message Board from the Classroom Mascot
“Next, we had the morning message. Our classroom had a stuffed animal mascot, Oli the Otter. Each day before school I would secretly write a message from Oli on a flip chart and be sure to include some of our ‘star’ reading words for the week in each message. We’d read the message together and then I would let children volunteer to come up and circle a ‘star’ word if they saw one in the message. You can call for volunteers or simply write each student’s name on popsicle sticks and keep these in a mason jar to draw from when looking for engagement. In the case of very introverted or shy children, I would let them come read it with me or bring a friend when speaking to the circle.”
Throughout the week children interact with Oli and even check him out to take home for weekends.
Calendars and Time-Telling
“The morning message is followed by a look at the calendar. We look at the day of the week and the month and talk about what we’ll accomplish that day. We use this process to help meet the academic standards for counting and knowing the days of the weeks and months as well as telling time,” said Azul-Elgas. The morning circle, well-constructed, will include many academic skills from reading to math, critical thinking, abstract reasoning, and sometimes writing.
Community Jobs/Classroom Roles
If you have classroom roles as part of your classroom’s Community Agreement, go over who has which role that week, so everyone is clear. “I did this out loud even though we had a chart. It only takes a minute and does a lot of good in teaching responsibility and leadership. I assigned 2-3 students to simple, recurring tasks from bringing the group in from recess to putting our books back on the shelves at the end of the day,” she said. “Roles should rotate weekly.”
“The whole Community Circle process only takes about 15-20 minutes and gets your students engaged and aligned in a safe space to learn and play together,” she said. “This regular routine does wonders for connecting all students to the classroom community and setting a positive tone for the day.”
End of Lesson or End of Day
“Just as you reflect on community agreements at the start of the lesson, you can also take time at the end of the day to invite students to give appreciations for moments when they saw community agreements and character strengths put into practice that day,” said Azul-Elgas. “This continues building positive student interactions and community and uses the well-researched area of gratitude to end the day on a positive note.”
End of the Year
Acknowledge and plan for the end of the school year by addressing feelings and honoring the learning and relationships that have been built. “This could be in writing with gratitude journaling that is combined into a digital resource for the class, or a gratitude tree where students write on paper leave things they enjoyed together and add to a large paper tree on your classroom wall, or you may even write a collective original poem or song. This culminating activity could also include a ‘leave behind’ project like planting a school garden, painting a small mural, or some kind of service project for the school,” Azul-Elgas said. “It lets students process a variety of emotions about school ending, and to reflect on what they learned and the collaborations they had.”
Resources
Character Focused Approach Framework. WGU School of Education. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/tclc/character-framework2303.html
Brown, M. McGrath, R. Bier, M., Johnson, K. & Berkowitz, M. (2023). A comprehensive meta-analysis of character education programs, Journal of Moral Education, 52:2, 119-138, DOI: 10.1080/03057240.2022.2060196
Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82, 405-432.
Taylor, R, Oberle, E., Durlak, J., Weissberg, R. (2017, July 7) Promoting Positive Youth Development through School Based Social and Emotional Learning Interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88, 1156-1171 https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdev.12864
Cipriano, C., Naples, L., Zieher, A. K., Durlak, J., Strambler, M. J., Eveleigh, A., … Chow, J. (2023, July 14). The State of Evidence for Social and Emotional Learning: A Contemporary Meta-Analysis of Universal School-Based SEL Interventions. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6PQX2
10 Tips for New Teachers in Uncertain Times. WGU School of Education. Dr. Mamie L. Pack. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/tclc/10-tips-new-teachers-uncertain-times2108.html
