1. Greet each student at the door

This is something so easy that a teacher can do from day 1 to start building an inclusive classroom. There are so many benefits to this practice. Teachers will break the ice with every one of their students right off the bat; greeting each student provides a quick scan of the personalities of each of them, and it helps teachers gauge the mood of their students that day. Having a bad morning? A greeting at the door can begin the process of alleviating that feeling.

2. Mind you bias

Regardless of age or maturity, every student wants to feel like they are valued just as much as their peers. Reflect on who you are spending time talking with, who you gravitate towards, who you call upon during discussion, who you help more often. Sometimes, you may have a student or students’ vying to be that cliche “class pet”. Avoid the class pet misnomer for their sake and for yours. Nothing interrupts a classroom community like the whiff of favourites. 

3. Spread the attention

Similarly to what was just previously mentioned, a classroom community is one where everyone feels included. Therefore, spread the attention. Figure out who your quiet kids are. Find the attention-seeking ones. And consciously spread your energy all around. A community is a group that shares some of the same characteristics and also shares some of the same goals. But they may not all go about achieving them in the same way. In order for a classroom community to thrive, that attention also needs to be shared. 

4. Be honest/transparent

I’ve written about this recently and the reason why it keeps popping up is because I believe it to be fundamental to quality teaching. In order for your students to feel comfortable and validated, and eventually feel like their classroom is a space where they can be themselves, they have to see it modelled. Just like a good math or science lesson that requires the teacher to show examples for deeper understanding, honesty and transparency from the teacher leads to more honest and transparent students. Which inevitably brings the class closer.

5. Prioritize “classroom community”

On the surface, this sounds redundant. But let me explain. If you want to establish a positive and robust classroom community, you need to devote energy to building it. What does this mean? Well, for starters, building a classroom community doesn’t stop after the first day. And it doesn’t continue to naturally grow just because you threw a few ice-breaker activities at them during that first week. A strong classroom community has structures that are embedded throughout the course of the school year. For example, in my grade 8 homeroom, we would end the last English class of the week 15 to 20 minutes early, put our books away and close any assignments we were working on, move desks and put our chairs in a circle, and have what we called, “Family Time Friday.” We would have a class conversation about all things school and otherwise: things that were working for them, things they wanted to see fixed or improved, issues they were having, ideas they wanted to share or see fleshed out moving forward. After a few weeks, the students didn’t even need me to initiate our “Family Time Friday.” They knew that it was part of what we did. And it created a group of students that were able to collaborate, advocate for themselves, and become more metacognitive. And ultimately, become closer.

Building a classroom community is not done in one day or one week. It is an ongoing process that really should extend throughout the entire ten months of the school year. Especially for teachers who have a homeroom or teach multiple subjects to the same students. Ultimately, creating a vibrant, inclusive, and welcoming classroom community makes learning easier for students. More importantly, it makes them feel valued and whole. Which should be every teacher’s underlying goal. Especially since it makes the actual teaching part of teaching easier. 

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“What? I said how do you heat your house?” the student teacher repeated. The kid answered, “Yeah, money…if you don’t have money you ain’t gonna have no heat”. Instead of highlighting the truth behind his response and perhaps leading the group discussion back to the science of heat, the student teacher dismissed the student as being oppositional, told him that maybe if he paid attention he wouldn’t have such a silly response and jumped back into his guiding talk about heat transfer. And just like that, another one bit the dust.

It is essentially the process of convection that heats a home but it does take money to keep that current running. So the kid was right in his own sense of what learning and knowledge meant. In fact, this kid is usually right when he decides to participate. He may not be right when it comes to the direct context of the implied topic of discussion, but his comments – which tend to come out of nowhere – are very rarely off course. In fact, they make a lot of sense to me as an adult. Ask a group of adults “how you heat up a home”, and the word “money” wouldn’t seem that strange to hear. But within the confines of a school where one “authority figure” is commander of “truth”, kids like Davon are wrong. But real truth be told, we are both wrong.

This student teacher and this student haven’t had the best of relationships since. He has increasingly become more “oppositional” and rarely does the work asked. The student teacher came in a few classes later with a demonstration involving a lighter and a balloon filled with water. While all the students were on the edge of their seats, this one student had his head down. When asked why he wasn’t paying attention, he said, “this is boring, who cares if the balloon pops or not”. Even I wanted to watch the demonstration, but young fella had no interest. Nothing that was about to happen intrigued him. He is 12 years old and couldn’t care less about school.

Admittedly, I don’t know what this student is interested in but I do know that he is not interested in school, as it currently stands. This is because the school, as it currently stands, is too limited for students like him to find a passion and truly see the benefit of education. But, I know what might help.

If we brought in actual experts in professional careers and took trips to various work environments, we would have these students more interested and invested in what school could provide for their future. I know nothing about NASA and the extent that I can teach students about space extends no further than what a textbook or my life experiences can provide me. Thus, I understand if a student who had dreams of becoming an astronaut at age 3 no longer cares about space by the time he or she reaches 7^th grade. Perhaps if there were more valuable and frequent opportunities for students to spend time with adults, who are experts, adults who have careers in actual things beyond teaching, perhaps then we could engage those students who seem to not care about school and subsequently re-foster a value in education. This would take time, networks of influence, and money. But, these seem like things that public education has, or can at least, lobby for.

But back to this student, whom I can only assume, knows no one that went to school beyond high school. To him, school is functionless. School can be functional and transformative for him if we changed what school is. Teachers are often referred to as “the soldiers on the ground”. Teachers all have the capacity to connect with their students and subsequently uncover their interests, however vague they may be. But not many teachers can take those interests and provide opportunities for student growth in those particular areas. Let me put it this way: I am a teacher. I have expertise in the art of teaching and perhaps a personal expertise in a few things beyond that. If a student came up to me and said he wanted to play football in university, I can undoubtedly help him get there – I got a scholarship for football and played in university. That area is within my realm of expertise. If a student tells me she wants to be an architect, I am stuck in terms of guidance and engagement beyond my modest attempts that would equate to researching how one becomes an architect. If an actual architect worked with students who were interested in architecture or an actual business owner was given the opportunity to hold monthly visits by students who were interested in entrepreneurship then maybe we would have a lot more students interested and engaged in school. And we would have a lot more students who currently see no purpose for school become interested in school. Of course “school” would look very different. But I could surmise that we would also have a lot more students who are on IEPs for giftedness rather than IEPs for “behavior”.

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 1) Learn From Your Students

Before we even get into creating a more equitable classroom, we must first understand that equity derives from established (explicitly or implicitly) difference. We often get so caught up in teaching to the curriculum that we overlook the obvious fact that students learn deeper when they can relate to the curriculum. So before we even get to the curriculum, we have to know our students. In order to know our students, we have to learn about them! Set aside time to learn about the culture of your students. That way, when you design a lesson, you aren’t just navigating in the dark holding the dim light of curriculum.

2) What Are Your Resources?

Do your resources reflect the students you serve? Are you reading about characters that only expose a singular type of identity? How about the topics or themes you must cover over the course of a semester? When you reference particular figures, using resources that students can relate to creates closeness between the teacher, the student, and the topic. And you don’t have to revamp your entire library or re-do one of your “binders”, you can do this by allowing your students to do the investigation. The Internet is a beautiful thing when used correctly!

3) Student Voice

Tests are great. They are a quick and easy way of assessing all of your students. Making students work independently (and also quietly) is a go-to method of ensuring that most of your students are on task. But students, like us adults, learn differently. We also demonstrate our learning differently. Differentiating the instruction and the assessment is something all teachers are familiar with. But once the school year gets into full gear, how many of us actually practice this pedagogy? (I myself am guilty of sliding into the traditional model of teaching too often). Traditional modes of teaching give us a nice curve when it comes to assessing the “haves” and “have-nots”, but even if 90% of your students are getting the material and demonstrating their knowledge on a test or through an assignment, it not good enough. Explore your students’ alternative ways of knowing and demonstrating knowledge. Demonstrating comprehension of a phenomenon in science can be assessed on a test or through a students’ composition of a rap song.

At the end of the day, we all are trying to make sure that every last one of our students “gets it”. The “gets it” part extends beyond the curriculum to include an understanding of how they are important and contribute to the world. These are three ways to consider equity in your classroom and hopefully they will help you ensure that your students succeed in “getting it” on both levels.

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 Don’t Smile Until November?

See, as troubling as the whole don’t smile until November is, the theme has a very slight bit of credence if understood within the right context. It doesn’t mean that you have to be all hard bodied and authoritative towards your students at the beginning of the school year. More accurately, the saying should express the notion that your students are reading, perceiving, and ultimately judging your mannerisms and behaviors just as much as you are theirs. On the second day of school, during the national anthem, one of my students was nonchalantly working on his name tag. My optimistic side of observing this act thought, “Good for him, he actually cares about his work. Maybe I’ll let it slide.” But the realistic side of my thoughts echoed loudly, “Nip this behavior pronto. One kid starts jotting a few things while the anthem plays and it goes unaddressed, by November you’ll have kids slouched over their desks while the Anthem is on.” This will happen. Unfortunately, I know from experience. So, after the anthem and announcements were all completed, I addressed it. I singled him out long enough, and more importantly, at the right time of year, for not only him, but the rest of the class to understand an implicit, but perfectly clear expectation and classroom culture.

Impressions, especially first ones are key. The first weeks of school are vital in establishing your classroom culture and expectations. It is important that even as the first weeks or so wind down, you continue to establish, not boundaries, but expectations for your students. But also remember that your character, through words and actions, throughout those first few days and weeks, are equally being impressed upon your students as well.

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As I envision my first week back, I know that one of the most important messages that I want to foster within my students is that our classroom is a space where everyone has the potential to excel. No hierarchy of learners based on test scores and participation. No caste-like system based on the type of personality said teacher prefers. It sounds cliché, but on that very first day it is important to employ a variety of pedagogical strategies that serve to create a safe and validating atmosphere. That sounds great Matthew, now how the heck do I do that?

Slow down, let me lay out the importance of creating a space that maintains an expectation of inclusivity, validation and community. Students learn best when they feel capable of learning. I’m sure I could back link a hundred studies that prove this, but the logic is basic: if you feel important, validated and included, you are more confident – in everything you do. And we do have ten months to cover the curriculum, so before we crack open the textbooks and multiple choice tests, it is a good idea to create an atmosphere that students enjoy and can relate to. That is simple and plain. Creativity doesn’t spew out of dull grey cubicles; it comes from the drama-centered midday game activities and bright-colored, strangely refreshing spaces, like Google Headquarters.

So how do we do it? First off, be yourself. Yes, yes you always are yourself when teaching. Sure, but I am talking about connecting with students akin to the way an uncle or aunt would connect with a nephew or niece. Allow your students to own the space and lead the dialogue in the class. Share some stories about your personal life, nothing is wrong with that. Obviously and of course, there are many simple “ice breaker” camp-style games that are great for the first day so that students can get to know their peers and teachers get to know their students. That first week is about creating connections. Dialogue and subsequent authenticity of dialogue is the most expedient way to create these much-needed links.

Secondly, creating community in the classroom is vital to classroom synergy and learning. In fact, when you takes steps to remove your classroom from the traditional school-styled dictatorship or the individualized, everyone-for-themselves form of environment, it helps students see themselves as agents in their own learning which in turn creates ownership of said learning. And one way to get to that “Utopian state” is to provide students the opportunity to see their ownership of the classroom. Students come to school and are told to sit at a desk and not write on it because it is not theirs, put their things in a locker but make sure they bring a lock which, ultimately, can be broken off whenever the administration deems necessary, and handed textbooks with class-coded numbers that they must return at the end of the year. And we then wonder why students feel foreign in certain schools?

This year, during that first week, I am going to make a baby step to try and create ownership of learning through community. I am going to start with a brainstorm session with my students regarding their ideal classroom and throughout the week we will work to re-arrange our shared space. I guess it works to my benefit; I am not particular to how my classroom is arranged. Heck, I don’t even roll with a desk (dang, I bring that up too much). Allowing students to share their ideas and actually bring their visions of their classroom to reality starts the year with a sense of ownership of learning. Creating the classroom may be something many students couldn’t care less about or perhaps never even thought of. But the simple fact of allowing them to provide their thoughts to a space that has always seemed so not theirs may just bring the students together on a deeper level.

I would continue on with what else I envision doing during that first week, but I think the brief examples and follow-ups may actually take me through those first few days. And actually, I think I just “blogged out” my first day lesson plan.

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Let’s take (the majority of) the boys for starters. Most of them rushed through the gingerbread house making activity. They were not patient enough to set the walls in place. They used too much or too little icing on parts that were supposed to connect the house together. Some hastily unpacked their pieces which subsequently led to the gingerbread being already broken before they even started. A few made a diligent attempt to construct the house, but when a piece would eventually fall or slide out of place, instead of having the resilience to re-set the falling piece, they grew frustrated and impatient. End result: maybe two out of fourteen boys went home that day with an intact gingerbread house.

After observing and laughing with the boys for quite some time, I went over to see how the girls were doing. (For this activity, we organized the class by pushing the desks into two long groups and I let the students sit wherever they wanted; so naturally, all the boys went to one table and all the girls went to the other). On the contrary to where you think I was heading with this piece, I observed much of the same things that I saw over at the boys’ table. Some of the girls made elegant gingerbread houses equipped with amazingly designed and perfectly distributed icing. Some had so little patience that after fifteen minutes their gingerbread house was a pile of broken cookie pieces with icing layered all over it. A small group of girls, instead of making the actual house, sat and ate the icing and candy that came with it while chatting. Out of sixteen girls, maybe nine went home with a pristine house.

How does this story tie into themes of teaching and education? One activity, as fun and engaging as it might be, is never going to speak to the unique abilities and strengths of every student in the class. Most of the students didn’t mind going home with half crushed, falling apart gingerbread houses. But when we take the gingerbread houses and replace them with grades and tests, we can start to see the flaws in teaching to a one activity, one assessment approach. If building the gingerbread house was a test, eleven out of thirty would have passed. Now, some would have done better if they got to see someone else model how to make it. Others would have done better if they could work in a quiet environment. You get the basic point here: a cookie cutter, one box approach to teaching and learning is a faulty way of going about our job as a teacher. We’ve got to mix it up, add a little icing so to speak. Yeah…these were just some thoughts as I watched my students having fun on a cool winter day.

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This upcoming fall, I will inevitably have to make some changes to my classroom. The last three years I’ve had the luxury of heading into summer break thinking little about classroom set up. I’ve been in the room for a while and things flow comfortably. We’ve got a couch in there, a nice classroom library, and of course, no teacher’s desk anywhere to be found. But since I am moving schools, I am going to have to put some thought into how I want my classroom to be set up.

Naturally, I posed the question on my Twitter and asked educators to chime in with thoughts on how I ought to create this new classroom. I received some noteworthy replies that aligned with my conservative AQ activity. Get rid of desks, change the color to stimulate more concentration, have a group work area and so on. Then I got a reply that seemed so simple yet so deeply entrenched in “pedagogy” that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it earlier. It was, “wait until the first week of school and let your students help design the place”. Duh? Of course.

When it comes to schooling, teachers are always talking about co-creating with students and merely becoming the “lead learner” in the classroom. But how often do we live this? Students walk into class at the beginning of the year and immediately yield to the unequal power balance (I am not saying that the balance of power in the classroom should be an equal ratio, I am just saying teachers don’t need to be worried about negotiating a little). They walk in and see a freshly decorated classroom, sometimes get told where to sit, and always get fed a bevy of first week activities. All of this translating to a top-down approach to learning.

Student agency in their own learning. A motto I want to instill next year. And what better way to head down this path than by allowing students ownership in their classroom by creating their ideal learning space. I know most teachers are type A personalities and want everything prepared in advance, especially when it comes to that first week and especially when it comes to their classroom. And perhaps the ease of already having a classroom decorated dulls the willingness to try something like this. But, when you are not hinged to those two things, why not go for it? With some structure of course, the classroom will become a true reflection of their ideals, skills, and standards. That sounds pretty inspiring to me. And to think, despite handing in a piece of paper of my ideal classroom a few years back, I hadn’t thought about how I could actually do this in reality. Thankfully, a new classroom is awaiting me in September.

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1) Reflect on the year…collectively.

Again, been there said that. But the reason why I am so persistent on driving this point home is because it is imperative to pedagogy. Point blank, when you talk to your students you transform the dynamic of teacher-and-student into mentor/human-and-human. When education wasn’t called “education” Plato would sit in the corner of a room, cross-legged and his “pupils” would come up to him and simply talk: they would ask questions, converse, and even question him. This is where the foundations of educational system sprouted from. This is why, in 2016, we are finally getting back to the idea of the teacher being the “lead learner” in the classroom. In June, teachers should strive to harken back to that Plato-style of education through means of actually having conversations with their students. There is more guidance and insight that teachers can provide besides the mere curriculum. Sometimes your students need instruction about life. In June, you should be the person they can unapologetically turn to.

2) Reward students for the “little things”

We all know that the last month of the school year is a constant battle dissimilar to any other month of the school year. It is hard not to slip into a lax attitude when the classroom feels like it’s 90 degrees and you walk into the staffroom only to see the countdown to summer break sign somewhere around the high teens. In September, establishing classroom management is heavily reliant in dictating the way things are going to work in your class moving forward. By June, those things should be long instilled and hardly ever spoken about. So when the classroom does become lax, rewarding students for the positive things they do to maintain “order” and “conduct” despite it being only weeks until summer break becomes a great incentive (if not then merely a classroom management tip) to not only acknowledge those students who do so but maintain a sense of organization.

These 2 keys to teaching before the summer break will prove to be imperative when you are finishing off your year. Both provide a synergy of counter-balance in a way: on the one hand you will be breaking down the archaic space of the classroom by providing students with the ability to connect with you, and on the other hand you will still use “positive rewards” to maintain a sense of order in a time that can get a little out of hand as we wind down to those final days.

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1. Let your students teach a lesson

There are always times throughout the year where you work one-on-one with a student or perhaps a small group and, after demonstrating and “teaching” a skill, your kids look at you with a gaze that says, “I am more lost now than before I came to you asking for help.” On these occasions, I usually try to humble myself and call on another student to come to my rescue. I acknowledge that their lack of understanding is because I was incapable of explaining it efficiently. In June, you should provide students the opportunity to not only help their peers individually but on a grander scheme. Instead of giving students a worksheet for homework in June, give them a task. Give Marcus the opportunity to go home and prepare a Math or Science lesson that he will deliver to the class the next day. This will not only engage Marcus in the learning process but will change the dynamic of the classroom and subsequently result in gaining the attention of the class. A student is teaching a lesson – sounds like a win-win to me.

2. Have conversations not pertaining to “school” with your students

I have spoken about this over and over again. Albeit this “tactic” would be more effective to start the year, dialoging with your students during the last month of the year creates a finalizing synergy that is vital to the schooling process. Over the course of a school year, your class is supposed to become a family. There is no better way to complete this process by talking with your students about things that diverge from the curriculum. The added benefit to this is that it may also serve to maintain order in your classroom. Inevitably, June will be the month of all bodies “letting their guard down” but when you do it in an authentic way, by having daily conversations, that ability to switch from “strict teacher” in June (which is probably ironic to students as they are just waiting to let loose) carries a little more clout when you can direct the flow of the class by switching back and forth from teacher to mentor.

3. Play, play, and play some more

Let’s be honest, being a teacher in June is a breeze. Besides the final report cards that you have to write, everything is pretty much over and done with. There may be a few class trips or a graduation sprinkled in depending on the grade you teach, but June is a month where the hardest thing to do as a teacher is hold onto the reins. Ironically, at the elementary level, “play-based” education is one of the new buzzwords being tossed around when educators make amendments to teaching pedagogy and curriculum requirements. So why not loosely experiment with this in June? This key isn’t just for elementary school educators either. The word “play” has fluidity to its definition: in the primary grades, this can equate to taking your kids to the school playground in place of an art period. In the middle school grades, it could mean giving your students the opportunity to act out (I should probably use the term “Reader’s Theatre”) a portion of a book instead of requiring them to analyze its significance through the pen and paper medium. And in high school, it can simply mean holding an English class in the ambiance of the outdoors or taking your Science class outside to explore the phenomenon that they’ve been learning about through the year. At some point throughout the year, the “drill and kill”, in whatever form it is delivered, should cease. June provides that opportunity to learn through different mediums while still maintaining some semblance of school culture.

Whatever your philosophy is behind teaching in the month of June, it should be understood that this month should provide your students with the opportunity to explore and stretch their learning. These three keys are direct take-aways that any teacher can read, take up, and deliver in their classroom tomorrow. Many teachers approach June as a month to simply just get by. Because of that mentality, the school year, while offering a finalizing moment of achievement or completion on the year, has a Monday Morning Quarterback feel during those first few weeks of the summer. Breezing through the month with an attitude of maintaining status quo in your classroom is fine I guess. But, June should be a month of growth; hopefully, these three things can help you gain that closure of the year that is often fleeting after a few years of doing this job.

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My friend then asked me, when does one make the transition from talking like a teacher to being a teacher talking? I had to think about the question for a while. In fact, I couldn’t provide her with an immediate answer. The question suggests that there is some transition that occurs within teachers from the point of being a new teacher toting the linguistic line by always evaluating their speech patterns with students (and staff) to a “veteran” teacher who no longer consciously thinks about how his words come out of his mouth. The question delves at a deeper understanding of the teaching profession, and that is, when does a teacher authentically feel comfortable inside his or her classroom?

I finally became a “teacher talking” when I perceived that I had gained the trust of my students and the trust of the staff I worked with. I gradually gained this “trust” by doing my job: and I didn’t measure proficiency in doing my job merely by the test scores of my students. I measured my effectiveness in the classroom by student engagement: if I ran a club, how many students would show up? If I wanted a quiet work period, how quick could I get students to buy in? When student I taught graduated, how many would come back to visit me? I backdoor-analyzed my ability to talk like a teacher through measures that could demonstrate how many of my students actually liked me as their teacher. That sounds trivial in that teaching is not a popularity contest nor should teachers strive to be friends with students (to a certain extent). But with teaching in elementary school comes a certain negotiation (or molding, for a more optimistic term) with students. I became a teacher talking after I gained the trust of my students and realized that however I talked to them, as long as it was genuine, would be received in earnest. Thus, I realized that I went from talking like a teacher to being a teacher talking once I understood that my students were going to validate my “teacher existence” no matter which way I gave it to them.

I think being an anomaly in a space, especially one like education, gives you a certain insight into certain things. Aspects of teaching that others may take for granted were not afforded to me as a young, Black male in the world of education. Things that may have been merely subconscious to other teachers were explicit and fractious for me as I learned how to navigate this new professional world. Now, there is no doubt that I am a “teacher” talking. I come off the top and say things to my kids that would undoubtedly have observing teachers scratching their heads and thumbing through their first-year manuals trying to find the page where it says in this instance, do or say this! But I am able to be fully comfortable with my approach to teaching, and more specifically, the way I talk as a teacher, because of the validity that students have given me over time. Along with that comes a comfort level that may take days, months, or even years. But when being a teacher talking finally comes, it is the students primarily who have afforded you that ability to finally find your voice.

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