Building a strong and supportive classroom community is a crucial step to integrating the arts. Students need to feel safe and supported in order to take the kinds of risks needed to engage in activities such as acting, singing, dance, etc.
The Northeast Foundation for Children focuses extensively on supporting teachers in building healthy classroom communities. One of their ideas is to establish a daily meeting time to build relationships and promote healthy conniptions among students and teachers. To read more about this approach, visit the Responsive Classroom site. You will find a wealth of information about this and many other topics related to social-emotional aspects of education.
How do you build a sense of community in your classroom?
