Beginning of the Year: Establishing a Positive Classroom Climate

I wanted to post this way sooner!  I realized the first quarter has come and gone!  A few of my fellow teachers asked me to share some charts that I use to set up a positive classroom climate at the beginning of the year, so I thought why not share it on my blog too.  You can really implement these at anytime!  The First are Rights and Responsibilities of Learners.  I use this to help students realize they have rights that they automatically have and they also have responsibilities.  These are not rules, but understandings.  I have a big conversation and discussion about each one (I re-visit it often).  I compiled this list by looking at other lists.  Feel free to add your own, and let me know in the comments. 

My district is one-to-one with technology.  With that becomes a lot of responsibility on the students and trust given to the students, which is difficult for teachers and me in particular.  Setting some boundaries and ground rules is a must.  Here is my pledge to be a positive digital citizen poster, and every student must sign.  I have a class discussion with this as well, and guide them to what should be on the poster.  I compiled this from a lot of different other posters I have seen after googling "Positive Digital Citizenship."  I picked and choose what I thought would work for 4th graders.

My last Poster I am going to share on this post is my Norms for Collaborative Discussions.  We have a lot of discussions in class: class, partners, and groups.  It can get crazy and a little out of hand.  This came from a website that explains Common Core Standards.  Again, I narrowed down and re-worded their list to make it fit my classroom.  I use this a starting point for math tasks, book discussions, and any other discussions in class. This is a year long process # 5 and 6 are the most difficult because 4th graders are still pretty self-centered.  They just want to share their ideas and be done, but discussions entail so much more. 

 

As always, I hope this is helpful!  Good luck on setting up a positive classroom climate!