Community in the classroom

I think it is very important to create a community in the classroom. For there to be an environment where children feel safe, welcomed, excited, encouraged and motivated. One idea would be to have all of the students create the rules of the room. If the students suggest the ideas, it will increase their commitment to following them, and probably help them to encourage their peers to as well. Also, this will help the teacher because if the students create the rules, there will be little confusion on what is and isn't allowed. Another idea is to assign jobs...calendar person, door holder, line leader, library organizer, blackboard cleaner, desk/ chair area monitor, flag holder etc. By assigning jobs the students truly become a member of their classroom community with responsibilities. Other ideas would be to have a suggestion box, where kids can submit their ideas and likes/ dislikes about their classroom. In Walking Trees we see so many burnt out teachers. If the teachers aren’t excited and motivated, what is going to excite and motivate the students? So many of teachers were just going through the motions and never got personal with students or showed they cared. When Ralph Fletcher asked the students to write about their family or a topic that that interested them he got on their level. He showed he cared, which motivated the students to care too.