From Teachers, for Teachers

What are the secrets to creating a strong learning environment from the very start of the school year?

Here, we share reflections and inspiration from practitioners at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. We invite you to share your own! Tell us what's inspiring you as 2016-17 kicks off. What are your early-week strategies for building community and creating expectations for success? Leave a comment, connect on Twitter, or reach out directly.

“How we construct these first days deeply communicates to students the kind of culture and community of learning your classroom will be. Invite students into the world of what is possible and share with them how they will achieve it. For example, begin each day with you or your students sharing a poem, a few lines from a play, a paragraph from a short story — any snippet of literature that communicates something they believe or are feeling deeply. Then have students privately and briefly reflect, through writing, what the literature told them about themselves and what it might have told them about the person who shared it."
— from Lecturer Vicki Jacobs

“Grow together. The work of transforming students’ lives through impactful teaching and learning experiences is too difficult and valuable for educators to do in isolation. ‘Isolation is the enemy of improvement.’ From the classroom, to the school, to the district, open the doors of your practice and grow together. Children will be the ultimate beneficiaries.”
— from Senior Lecturer Irvin Scott

"Cultivate a culture of adventure. As I start this term, I continue to return to this John Dewey quote: ‘All thinking involves a risk. Certainty cannot be guaranteed in advance. The invasion of the unknown is of the nature of an adventure; we cannot be sure in advance.’ I think it’s great guidance for learners of all ages."
— from Associate Professor Karen Brennan

“Read aloud every day. It’s a good way to introduce students to academic language, great stories, and diverse characters. The students will get to know each other through their responses to the stories. Who doesn’t like being read a good story!”
— from Senior Lecturer Pamela Mason

"Be meticulous about your planning for these first few class periods — manage first impressions carefully. What are the first words you will say to students after the bell rings? How will you spend these first classes? More generally, how can you begin to establish a productive and positive classroom culture — to communicate to students that you are well organized, have high expectations in terms of both learning and behavior, and aspire to make each class period stimulating, challenging, and enjoyable?"
— from Professor Jon Star

"Begin the school year by celebrating the diversity of your classroom — different racial or cultural backgrounds, as well as children’s unique interests and strengths. The theme is 'differences are great.' Encouraging children to focus on differences can help them understand and respect the strengths and weaknesses in others and in themselves. Start with an activity to help provide a foundation for caring that lasts throughout the year.”
— from Lecturer Katherine Boles

Share your own inspiration! Leave a comment: What is your strategy for establishing a positive learning environment from the start of the school year?

Additional Resources

• A series of classroom activities (particularly for back-to-school) that celebrate difference.

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