What do you do to ensure that children feel they belong in your classroom?
Last year in our TCB Teachers’ Club, inspired by a revisit to Dylan Bosseau’s Transform Challenging Behavior Online Conference interview (2021) we spoke about how morning rituals and routines can be designed and tweaked to help children feel they belong and are part of the classroom community.
…and how a huge part of why kids “act out” is because they feel they don’t belong.
Interestingly, Teacher Dylan also shared a story of letting a child who was slow-to-warm up participate in the morning meeting…from across the room! Because that’s what this child preferred.
Sometimes that’s what inclusion looks like.
Especially at the beginning of the year flexibility and meeting children where they’re at is key to success.
Sometimes this type of flexibility requires explaining to coworkers, families or even to your admin how come you’re choosing to let children warm up to large group experiences.
Advocating for best practices and for what we know in our hearts to be true is often required.
Are you flexible with your large group expectations?
Let me know with a simple yes/no (or share specifics if you want to) in the comments below.
And if you want to learn more about The Power of Rituals for Self-Regulation and get access to my interview with Teacher Dylan (that interview inspired this article) then check out our Transform Challenging Behavior Online Conference Library.