New School Year's Resolution

As the beginning of a new school year is just days away and we have been busy getting our room ready, I began to think about how our profession is not like any other. Our new year begins in August and just like in January, as we make New Year's Resolutions, this year I wanted to make a New School Year's Resolution. This year our school is being merged with a low performing school that was closed by our county. Students from this school will be bused into our area. We want to do everything we can to make this transition as smooth for parents and students as possible. I read a great article from Education To The Core about how to build a successful classroom community. The thing that stuck out the most to me was how listening to our students is very important and I think for us this year more than ever. Students need to know we care about them and by listening to them we show that we are interested and therefore become invested in their lives. I have decided to have a share time each morning as a part of our morning meeting. I will choose different students each day to share something, by doing this I hope to not only build trust within my classroom but let students know that I am interested in more than just their academics. I would love to hear how you build community within your classroom. I've included the link to the article below