FROM TARA:

My partnership school, Reedy Creek Elementary, is a great school that strives to be a close community. Their mascot is a frog, and all of the “FROGS” at Reedy Creek stick to the FROGS code of community conduct: F is for Friendship, R is for Respect, O is for Order and safety, G is for Good judgment, and S is Self control.
Reedy Creek has a student-run morning news system, where the classrooms all turn on their television each morning to watch their peers talk about Reedy Creek news, tell a few jokes, and ask a few trivia questions under the category “Are you smarter than a Reedy Creeker?” I think that this is a really good way to build a school-wide community. It is so neat for the students to turn on the T.V. and see their classmate bringing the morning news, and it appears that the students who bring the news change weekly so more students have the opportunity to have their 15 minutes of fame.
Another thing that I have seen at Reedy Creek that I really like is what they call “Breakfast and Books.” Parents and students come together at Reedy Creek in the morning and eat breakfast and read books together. What I really liked about this is the parent involvement that it emphasizes, which is so important; especially when it comes to helping children gain interest in reading.
My 5th grade classroom at Reedy Creek Elementary School is full of bright, eager, and energetic students; however, I feel that they lack a certain sense of community. Through my observations, I have noticed that there are several small “cliques” of friends, as well as a few “loners.” I feel like this is a class that could really do well to have some time to get to know each other a bit better. The hard thing about this is that any time the teacher tries to do any group work, or really anything besides the traditional lecture and practice, the students get really out of hand and goof around. At the beginning of the year, the student seats were organized in groups of 4, but the students were goofing off so much to the point that they now sit in individual rows. This makes certain community building activities very difficult and frustrating.
One thing that I think may work in this particular classroom would be something like the “Starring Me” that we have seen in our seminar classroom. I feel like that would be good for this class for two reasons. The first reason is that there are quite a few students in this class that I can tell really want their voice and personality to be seen and heard, and this is a great way for them to get that out of their system. Second of all, I think that it would be a great way for the students to get to know every one in the class. It would give them the opportunity to learn things about other people that they would not otherwise find out. Perhaps they could realize that they have more in common with people outside of their “clique”. I also feel like “Starring Me” would be a great opportunity for the teacher to learn more about the students, and what interests and motivates them. As a teacher, I think it is important to know what your students are interested in so that you can find a common ground with them, and try to connect with them. I feel like having this connection between the teachers and students is an important and large step toward a closer classroom community.
To me classroom community is the most important part of having a positive learning environment. Students need to feel comfortable with themselves, their classmates, and their teacher in order for them to be in an environment where learning can take place. As a teacher you should strive for a very close classroom community. This group of people will be interacting together almost every day over the next year, and in order for it to be a great experience for everyone, there needs to be a foundation of an open and close-knit community.