Creating an Emotionally Healthy Classroom Environment
So the blog for week one's featured article comes from Edutopia.org! This particular article is written by Mark Phillips and discussed how to create an emotionally healthy classroom environment. I found this article to be of particular interest, as in a few short weeks (yikes!!!) it will be time to start preparing for the new school year!
Phillips suggests many different ways to help you build that emotionally healthy classroom, but below you will find a few of my favorite ideas and how I plan to execute those ideas!
- Create a safe place for students
- Arrange my classroom in such a manner that would take away the opportunities for
students to cause themselves or others any harm. (The balls to throw at the Smart
Board shouldn't be located near the gross motor movement area.)
- Create an effective emotional environment
- Spend time allowing students to do things that help them get to know each other
and allow them to each tell about their weekend or share special news (A lot of
times in Kindergarten students will get wiggly teeth and need to share with their
friends NOW for support and understanding purposes).
Phillips has many more suggestions in his article! A great back to school read for all!
I know! Summer is so short this year! My school actually ended up canceling Spring Break this year in order to make up some snow days and we still had to tack 2 more days on at the end of the year!
ReplyDeleteWe officially start again on August 26th!