Building Classroom Community: Putting Relationships Before Rigor
Connecting with students must precede the pursuit of academic rigor, as emphasized in our discourse on building a robust classroom community. In this episode, I articulate the indispensable nature of fostering trust and relationships between educators and students, positing that such connections lay the groundwork for effective learning. We explore practical strategies that teachers can implement to enhance these relationships, thereby cultivating an environment in which students feel valued and understood. By prioritizing relationships, we create a foundation upon which rigorous academic challenges can be successfully navigated. Ultimately, this episode underscores the profound impact that a nurturing classroom community has on student engagement and achievement.
The discourse presented in this episode advocates for a paradigm shift within educational practices, emphasizing the necessity of prioritizing interpersonal connections over the relentless pursuit of academic rigor. Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve, cogently argues that students' engagement and willingness to learn are intrinsically linked to the quality of their relationships with their educators. By establishing a foundation of trust and respect, educators can create an environment in which rigorous academic challenges are not only welcomed but embraced.
In this enlightening episode, Mr. Kleve offers a plethora of strategies designed to enhance classroom community, such as personalized greetings and collaborative expectations that deepen student involvement in the classroom's social fabric. He posits that these practices are instrumental in cultivating a sense of belonging, which is crucial for fostering student motivation and accountability. Furthermore, the episode explores the long-term implications of a strong classroom community, including its role in mitigating behavioral challenges and promoting resilience among students as they navigate academic and personal obstacles.
As the episode draws to a close, Mr. Kleve delivers a poignant reminder of the integral relationship between community and academic success. He encourages educators to embrace a philosophy that places relationship-building at the forefront, thereby ensuring that the pursuit of academic rigor is grounded in a supportive and nurturing environment. This episode serves as a clarion call for educators to recognize that the foundation of effective teaching lies not solely in content delivery but in the profound connections they forge with their students.
Takeaways:
- Establishing trust with students is paramount for fostering a conducive learning environment.
- Relationships must be prioritized over academic rigor to facilitate deeper learning and engagement.
- A well-established classroom community serves as a foundation for effective classroom management and academic success.
- Shared class expectations promote a sense of belonging and accountability among students, enhancing community dynamics.
- A daily mental health check-in can significantly improve student engagement and emotional well-being in the classroom.
- Storytelling, including sharing personal challenges, can strengthen the bonds between teachers and students, fostering empathy.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Today's episode is going to be focused around building classroom community, putting relationships before rigor.
Speaker B:That's what we're going to be focusing on.
Speaker B:Before we get into it, let's talk about three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:The first thing I'm thankful for is my microphone because recording these podcast episodes lets me speak my truth and share what's on my heart as an educator and as a human being.
Speaker B:The next thing is new experiences.
Speaker B:I'm thankful for new experiences.
Speaker B:One experience thinking about being a, a brand new line judge and getting to learn what that's all about and how to do a good job.
Speaker B:What a powerful experience when you get to do something brand new and even with all of it, maybe, maybe it's challenges or maybe it's hiccups or kind of the stumbles.
Speaker B:Even when you do something brand new, you're brand new to it.
Speaker B:It's not going to be perfect.
Speaker B:It's not going to go 100% smoothly, probably, but that's where we learn and we grow.
Speaker B:New experiences is such an important thing for us as human beings.
Speaker B:The third thing, My children's creativity.
Speaker B:I love my, my three children and their creativity.
Speaker B:They're constantly reminding me of how imagination fuels growth.
Speaker B:I just love seeing their creativity and, and their imagination fuel into their everyday life.
Speaker B:All right, well, let's get into it.
Speaker B:Let's talk about the building classroom community, relationships before rigor.
Speaker B:We don't.
Speaker B:We hear all the time about rigor.
Speaker B:Rigor, rigor.
Speaker B:We, we have to have rigor in a classroom, right?
Speaker B:Well, I would argue we have to put relationships before rigor.
Speaker B:Why relationships must come first.
Speaker B:Well, students won't learn deeply from teachers they don't trust.
Speaker B:They won't.
Speaker B:Relationships before rigor doesn't mean lowering the bar.
Speaker B:It means building the foundation.
Speaker B:So rigor as possible you.
Speaker B:In order to get to a spot in our classrooms where we can have strong rigor, we have to create that foundational base of relationships.
Speaker B:The foundation of rigor is built on relationships.
Speaker B:Write that down.
Speaker B:It's going to be in the test, right?
Speaker B:Relationships, truly, though, matters that much.
Speaker B:A strong classroom community is proactive classroom management.
Speaker B:And so every time I go into my classroom, every single day, I think about the classroom community, I think about the state of it.
Speaker B:Is there an area where we're falling short?
Speaker B:Is there an area that I can target in order to help strengthen our classroom community?
Speaker B:Is there things I need to do to help make it so that we run more smoothly and more effectively?
Speaker B:Because if I don't, if I don't be careful of some of those holes that are in the classroom community and some of those areas where I need to address and maybe fix or try to, try to try to reinforce, then things can get really messy when it comes to me then throwing high expectations and high rigor into the classroom.
Speaker B:It can, it can, it can just.
Speaker B:You're literally, what you're going to do is you can have Hayek or you can have, you can do a lot of rigor in a classroom.
Speaker B:And if you have holes in your foundation and those, that, that community, everything you're going to do with that rigor is just going to fall through those holes.
Speaker B:It's kind of like a bucket with holes.
Speaker B:You keep filling it up and water is going to keep leaking out of it and leaking all over, and it's just not going to get us to where we need to be and where we want to go as, as a classroom.
Speaker B:So that's why we have to make sure that if our classroom does have some issues that we need to address, we need to address them.
Speaker B:We need to try to fill in those holes to make it the strongest classroom community that we possibly can in order to have the most impact around rigor.
Speaker B:Why classroom community, or excuse me, what classroom community looks like?
Speaker B:So we come into your classroom.
Speaker B:We.
Speaker B:You come into my classroom.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker B:What should classroom community look like?
Speaker B:Well, here's some.
Speaker B:I'm going to share some examples of what some ideas, if you're wondering.
Speaker B:Students greeting each other by name, students using each other by name.
Speaker B:One of the thing.
Speaker B:Oh, students addressing teachers by their name too.
Speaker B:Not, not by their first name.
Speaker B:Like for, like students not addressing teachers by their first name or by just saying, like a cleave.
Speaker B:No Mr. Cleave or Mr. Or Ms. Or Mrs. You've got to use those signs of respect with adults and using your first name if you're talking to your fellow peers in the classroom, too.
Speaker B:Having an opportunity where students share expectations, where we have like, shared expectations, where everyone believes in those expectations, not just where the teachers just kind of pushing them up, but where everyone knows what the expectations are and you get the class buying into those expectations.
Speaker B:That's, that's an important thing that.
Speaker B:To see.
Speaker B:To see when we look at what does a classroom community look like, students know the expectations.
Speaker B:Not just they kind of know or they kind of do it once in a while.
Speaker B:No, that's not a, That's a messy community.
Speaker B:And so having a shared expectations in a classroom where everyone believes in and maybe not everyone follows and you have to do some reteaching, but it's pretty well known that, hey, these are our expectations.
Speaker B:These are what we have to do.
Speaker B:This is what we believe in.
Speaker B:And it's very, it's very clear and been made very clear as day.
Speaker B:And there's no surprises in terms of what we expect our classroom community to look like.
Speaker B:And then rules and routines make everyone feel like they belong, where everyone feels like, you know, every system, every routine, every procedure I set up in my classroom, I try to set those all up in a way where they provide like an inclusive type of environment where they're not excluding people.
Speaker B:They make it where they can set everybody up for success in the classroom, but they make it very clear as can be how a classroom is going to be run, how my classroom is going to be run.
Speaker B:And think about your classroom, too.
Speaker B:Think about the classroom routines, procedures, rituals that you have in your room too.
Speaker B:Are they inclusive?
Speaker B:Where they make everyone feel welcome, where you know or they do, they have things that built into them where it makes certain students feel like they're being favored and other students might, might notice that.
Speaker B:I mean, that's something to think about too, is, is we got to think about every single thing that we do in a classroom.
Speaker B:Does it promote inclusivity or is it excluding certain students or certain groups of students that we got to be really careful of?
Speaker B:And so if I would come into a classroom, I would, I would want to see that those routines, procedures and systems are being very inclusive to everyone in order to meet student needs.
Speaker B:Now, now, here's where I have to.
Speaker B:Here's the caveat here.
Speaker B:Here's, here's the thing I have to say is certain student, not all students get the same thing.
Speaker B:To be successful.
Speaker B:Fair.
Speaker B:Equal does not mean fair, doesn't mean equal.
Speaker B:And so sometimes there's certain systems you have to put in place to set certain students up for success.
Speaker B:But it, as educators, we have to make those professional judgments.
Speaker B:We might have to adapt and to adjust.
Speaker B:But is it done?
Speaker B:My question is, is it done in a way where it's very clear that certain students need certain things, and it's not to the detriment or to the excluding of certain students because one student needs certain things?
Speaker B:You know, it's kind of like them in special education, the least restrictive environment.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like certain students, you want to give students the least restrictive environment, but where they can still thrive and be successful in a classroom setting.
Speaker B:Same thing with when we set up systems, procedures, rituals, practices in the classroom.
Speaker B:They have to be really at least restrictive.
Speaker B:But certain students might need additional things put in place that help them be successful.
Speaker B:And that's okay as long as we're not excluding people and making it kind of weird in the classroom.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:I know very well the importance of building a classroom community relationships before rigor.
Speaker B:Because as an educator, relationship building is at the foundation of everything I do.
Speaker B:I'm not going to dive into academics if I haven't really done some really strong groundwork on building that, that, that, those relationships.
Speaker B:And then sometimes you got to go back and you gotta address some stuff.
Speaker B:One of the things that I do with hoping to build that community is sharing personal stories in my classroom.
Speaker B:Appropriate.
Speaker B:Of course, there are certain things that you probably don't.
Speaker B:Not probably, that you certainly would not want to share with students.
Speaker B:But when, if you have opportunities to share stories with students about maybe adversity or challenges or obstacles you faced as an educator, those can be powerful.
Speaker B:I've shared with my students that my fifth graders know that my wife and I lost five babies that passed away when my wife was pregnant.
Speaker B:My fifth graders, I don't go super in depth about it, but they know that and know that that was a hard time in my life.
Speaker B:My fifth graders know also that my mom died like a year and a half ago, and that that was a really big challenge that I faced where I had to go through some grief therapy and still doing some grief therapy to kind of help me through that challenging phase of my life just because I didn't want to get into a dark hole that I had to dig out of.
Speaker B:And grief can be really challenging.
Speaker B:And to let my students know that if you have to get help from someone, that's okay, that there's no Shame in that.
Speaker B:And that is so important to take care of our mental health as human beings.
Speaker B:And so sharing some of those things with students can be very empowering for students to let them know that hey, if they're facing some things that are challenging to them, that they're not broken, they're not awkward or weird or anything like that, that, that we, all the human part of the human experiences is the base challenges and that we, we have to go through adversity and have to have some resilience and that, you know, that the mindset is, it's really important that kind of live with resilience, but it doesn't mean we can't own some of our feelings and be in with some of our feelings and emotions, but then also get help with those when we need it.
Speaker B:Boy, I think that I have bound to be more powerful than anything else when it comes to building relationships, building community in my classroom.
Speaker B:Because if I'm opening up and getting personal once again, it's got to be, you gotta, as, as teachers we have to use our best judgment here and we can't be, you know, we're probably not going to be getting into if we're having spouse challenges, you know, or, or I mean there's certain things that you probably aren't going to get into.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so we got to use our best professional judgment here.
Speaker B:But when we can connect the students in a way, sharing some of our challenges, man, they're going to be more likely to open up and, or to be able to connect and resonate with what we're trying to say here.
Speaker B:And that, that can be powerful.
Speaker B:It's when I share some of those things, I can help build empathy and resilience type of thinking in my students by sharing those stories and talking about tough times.
Speaker B:And students can connect with those hard times too sometimes more often than not.
Speaker B:So I, I spend a lot of time connecting first before I push and lean into academics because I do know that rigor without relationships doesn't stick and we're just spinning our wheels and we're not going to get any traction.
Speaker B:So what are some strategies that, that we can address in order to build community?
Speaker B:Early morning check ins or circles to start today is so important.
Speaker B:I do a morning, a mental health check in first thing in the morning where I kind of check in with where students are at mentally as we're getting the day started.
Speaker B:I try to greet each student as they come into the classroom telling them hello and I'm glad that they're in the Classroom.
Speaker B:Glad that they're, they're here.
Speaker B:And just welcoming each and every individual student into my classroom.
Speaker B:And I can learn a lot about if a student comes in and struggling just by doing that greeting.
Speaker B:Class created agreements can be very powerful, like a promise or like a, like a code of conduct in the classroom created by students.
Speaker B:I have this thing in my classroom.
Speaker B:It's the Success Pledge where students read it every day in the morning.
Speaker B:We do in our classroom, we have our procedure where students say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker B:They do a flag song, a Winnebago tribe flag song for the Ho Chunk tribe.
Speaker B:Then there's morning announcements.
Speaker B:And afterwards we do the Success Pledge where we read it all together.
Speaker B:And it really is a way to honor the work that students are doing to remind them to not give up, to keep trying and to do their the best that they can while honoring their tribe, their ancestors and themselves through the hard work that needs to be done in and out of school.
Speaker B:And so that's right in their desk.
Speaker B:And we do that daily.
Speaker B:Student jobs and roles having in the classroom is really important too.
Speaker B:My teaching partner, he has certain jobs and roles in the classroom that he expects students to do.
Speaker B:I have certain jobs and procedures and roles that like, hey, I need this done by a certain student every day.
Speaker B:And that's kind of nice that when we have students who can develop responsibility by having them take care of those things within a classroom.
Speaker B:And so setting up the, and you can set up as small, you can set up a list of things that need to be done as smaller, as big as possible to kind of develop that responsibility and develop that, hey, you're doing this to help support our community.
Speaker B:Our, our community is our class, right?
Speaker B:And so now you got the school community too.
Speaker B:The whole school.
Speaker B:But then, but our first and foremost community is, is our, our classroom community.
Speaker B:And so what are some jobs that could help benefit the community by having individual students do and take on that responsibility and then bringing in that storytelling.
Speaker B:Storytelling, personal examples that we as human beings have faced as adults.
Speaker B:And letting students do some storytelling too.
Speaker B:Sharing some challenges, obstacles, and maybe some not so good things that they have faced too in their life there that can truly contribute to the conversation and building the culture of community.
Speaker B:That that community is so important and that we're in this together, right?
Speaker B:When we're building community, we want to send a message that, hey, we're in this together in a classroom.
Speaker B:That is such an important thing.
Speaker B:And so, so I guess those are the things like that, like a check in of Some sort of like a class created agreement or like a pledge of store, doing some student classroom jobs and then doing some storytelling.
Speaker B:Why does this matter long term?
Speaker B:Why does it matter to build community long term in our classroom?
Speaker B:Well, it does reduce misbehaviors because belonging to the needs of belonging are being met in the classroom.
Speaker B:It creates resilience when challenges come where we, when students do face a challenge or obstacle in or outside of the classroom, students are more likely to respond to that in a way that they're applying resilience and I can get over this adversity I'm facing type of mindset.
Speaker B:And then it ultimately builds peer accountability too.
Speaker B:Students can hold each other accountable to the community norms and expectations.
Speaker B:It's just not the teacher saying, hey, this is what we need to do.
Speaker B:This is how we need to act.
Speaker B:This is what needs to be taken care of.
Speaker B:It's individual students holding each other accountable too in those conversations.
Speaker B:And that is such a powerful thing for us as educators to build in our classroom too, where it's not just.
Speaker B:It shouldn't just have to be us doing it all the time.
Speaker B:So how important that is ultimately, when it comes down to it, community isn't an extra thing.
Speaker B:It is truly, truly, truly the soil where everything else grows.
Speaker B:My own life has taught me that relationships carry us through struggles.
Speaker B:If we want kids to reach rigor, we.
Speaker B:We've got to connect to them first.
Speaker B:Got to build that community first.
Speaker B:Well, with that being said, this whole episode was all about relationship relationships, community building before rigor.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So relationships and community building before the academic rigor in our classrooms.
Speaker B:Well, that brings this episode to a close.
Speaker B:Now, I want you to remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher, yeah, yeah, yeah.
