Community Building

A teacher who focuses on community building understands that teams don't just happen. They are built. Community building looks, sounds, or feels like the following:

• Modeling democracy in the classroom
• Speaking of students with respect
• Teaching students to be respectful of one another
• Pointing out legitimate student strengths
• Making sure everyone has an essential role to play
• Helping students experience and understand the power of positive interdependence
• Establishing positive shared experiences (building positive group memories)
• Making students aware of common goals with varied routes to achieving them
• Helping students learn how to help one another in productive ways