Class Meetings

Bringing your group together in a circle sets the tone for respectful learning and, with your guidance, establishes a climate of trust. This climate will extend beyond your meetings and will address the critical human need to feel a sense of belonging. You might meet at the beginning of each week or at another time that works best for your class. Once established, you may also hold “Emergency Class Meetings” when particular challenges arise that the group needs to solve collaboratively. If you worry about not having enough time to fit this in, just look at all of the curricular competencies you are developing here and do it anyway! The impacts can be surprisingly incredible.

Download the class meeting template and tracking sheet PDF.

Other ideas for establishing connection:

If you teach multiple classes/day: begin with a check-in prompt using name magnets/rocks to move to a category, e.g. “Energy level today”, Would you rather…”, etc., is an easy way of acknowledging each student, giving them a chance to make choices and to feel connected to the group. It’s also a helpful way of managing attendance!
Start each day/class by offering some form of choice or “soft start” - this empowers learners, takes the focus off late kiddos, allows teacher to connect with individual students on a personal level, helps teacher avoid having to explain and re-explain instructions, allows teacher to get a sense of the energy of the group coming in. Just a few minutes can set the tone of your time together!
Tell stories that allow your students to see you as a vulnerable human with a variety of emotions and experiences. Don’t be afraid to be silly sometimes! When we take healthy emotional risks, our students feel safer to do so.
Connect before saying goodbye at the end of the class/day. Acknowledge through eye contact and/or words. Let your students know why this is important - that “we’ve spent this intentional time together and this is one way of showing that we value this”. Option: throw around an object after giving a prompt at the end of the day. Keep it fresh by changing up the topic and the object – from a rubber chicken to a squishy ball and anything in between!

The Provincial Intermediate and Middle Years Teachers' Association (myPITA) is a Provincial Specialist Association (PSA) of the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF)
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