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Building Classroom Community

I gave a presentation at the Saint Louis Adding It Up conference on Monday on collaborative strategies that I use in my classroom. It was the first time I have ever presented outside of my school district, which I have only done twice, so I was pretty psyched for the opportunity. It was a small group but I think I everyone was able to take at least one thing away from it.

I took a lot of time to share how I build community in my classroom because I feel that before I can ask my students to have deep meaningful discussions about math or collaborate with their peers, I need to establish a safe and supportive space to do that. Everyday, before we go over the warm up, I have my students talk with their partner by asking them a few of the following questions. "Hi, how are you today? How has your morning/afternoon been? What did you have for breakfast? What are you doing after school? Do you have any quizzes or tests today?" This daily check-in not only breaks the ice, it also helps get us ready for the chatting we will do about math by getting their voice in the room early in the class period. I have found that when I ask my students to talk to each other it is easier for them to start the conversation if I give them specific questions to ask, rather than telling them to just talk to their partner. It seems to take some of the awkwardness out of the initiation of the conversation especially if they don't know their partner very well or they are shy.

Another way I like to help build community is to have weekly partner chats during which my students ask their partner 3 - 5 "fun" questions to help them get to know each other on a more personal level. It also teaches them how to make small talk with people they don't know well or dig deeper and find out new things about their friends. Here are a few example questions. Have you ever been on a plane? Would you prefer to vacation on a beach or in the mountains? What is the best place to get pizza? During my presentation we created a list of potential partner chat questions. Here is the link to the Google Doc: https://tinyurl.com/partnerchat. It is open for anyone to edit, so please add to the list and use it as resource.
A few things that I love about partner chats: they provide an opportunity for the students to get to know each other and while they are chatting, I get the opportunity to walk around and eavesdrop or butt into their conversations. Sometimes the kids pull me in and want me to answer the questions as well. It only takes about 5 to 7 minutes of class time and I find that it is totally worth it.

If you have any ways that your build community in your classroom, I would love to hear about them. I am always looking for new things to integrate into my class.

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