Across the United States there are music educators that are teaching students with varying levels of exceptional needs. One of the sub-sets within this student population are students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Just as ASD itself lies upon a spectrum, so too does the need for accommodations and supports for students with ASD to have successful musical experiences.

Unfortunately, music educators often find themselves ill-prepared to meet these exceptional needs. I spent my first year outside of the music classroom in various intervention and special education roles. I learned more about teaching students with exceptional needs in that year than I ever thought I could.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that all students be taught in the least restrictive environment, or LRE. The implementation of this requirement often becomes students with exceptional needs attending music class with age-similar typical students. For others it might mean receiving music instruction as a self-contained classroom, while other students may receive a combination of both.

​Depending on the severity, students with ASD are often mainstreamed with age peers on the basis of social development. In these cases, music curriculum is modified, and the student is not expected or required to meet the same educational goals as his typical peers.

In cases of social mainstreaming, the argument relies on students receiving valuable social interactions with like-aged peers. However, the reality is that mainstreaming may not be in the most appropriate setting for music education.

​​In social mainstreaming, the goal is not to learn music, but to provide opportunities for students to develop their social skills. However, for many students with ASD the musical content being taught to their typical peers may be too advanced for them to fully comprehend and retain.

In this setting, music educators must adapt activities and curriculum in order for students with exceptional needs to progress musically. Music educators must often use creative problem solving in order to apply modifications and accommodations for students.

Mary Adamek describes the following methods of adaptation that music educators can employ in their classrooms:
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1. Adapt the extent to which the student is involved in the task, based on the child’s abilities.
2. Adapt the skill level needed to perform the music task.
3. Increase the amount of personal assistance provided to a specific learner to promote success.
4. Adapt the ways in which instruction is delivered to students.
5. Adapt how the student can respond to instruction by varying the types of responses expected.
6. Adapt the goals or outcome expectations for the student, while using the same materials for all students.

The way in which we as music educators implement any combination of these adaptation strategies will vary greatly between students, as all students will have differing levels of musical success without any instructional adaptations. Special educators and any related services therapists can help us determine to what level each student may need adaptations in a classroom with typical peers.

While there is inherent value in allowing students to experience music through what may be their least restrictive social environment, this often comes at the expense of their least restricting musical environment.

Many of the most common practices among primary music educators is teaching by rote. While this is often regarded as a highly effective strategy for teaching typical students, it can hinder students with ASD. Students with ASD respond differently to imitation than their peers who are typical.

Research suggests that students with ASD imitate the actions of others with a different level of understanding and fluidity than their typical peers. This difference in ability to learn through imitation puts students with ASD at a disadvantage in the mainstream music classroom, as children often learn new skills through imitation of those around them. For this reason, imitative behaviors should be encouraged in students with ASD, but music educators need to properly understand the associated difference in language, play, and joint attention.

Students with ASD may not appear to be responding to the music, but this can easily be attributed to the difference in communication. Specifically, students with ASD tend to struggle with Joint Attention, or the ability to share the attention of observing an event or object with another individual.

For example, many students with ASD struggle with making eye contact, or focusing their attention on a specified object. Due to multiple constraints, initiating Joint Attention in a mainstreamed music classroom would be difficult, if at all possible. However, working within a self-contained classroom, music educators can help use music as a medium to encourage bids for Joint Attention in our student with Autism Spectrum Disorder. 

As previously stated, there are valuable aspects of having students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in both the self-contained and mainstreamed classrooms. Having students with ASD included with their typical like-aged peers allows them to develop the kinds of social skills they need to improve through interactions in the music classroom.

However, as stated previously, the goal in social mainstreaming is not for improving musical learning, but to expose students to differing social environments. If music educators were to allow our students with Autism Spectrum Disorder to experience music with their typical peers as well as with other students with ASD, they will be able to make both social and musical growth.

These students will be able to grow towards their social goals while attending music class with their typical peers; while attending in a self-contained environment can allow music educators to focus specifically on the musical goals of these students in a more direct setting.

Music educators should always strive to allow all students to experience music in the way that best serves them individually. A student’s Least Restrictive Environment should always be respected, but the way this looks for each student will vary.

Some students with Autism Spectrum Disorder will be able to progress both socially and musical in a music classroom shared with their typical peers. Contrarily, others will require a smaller setting in a self-contained classroom to increase their musical skills and understanding.

​Additionally, these self-contained music classes can also help students with their non-musical goals. Music educators should advocate for their students with ASD to receive appropriate instruction in both their social and musical Least Restrictive Environments.

Performance is obviously a large part of what music is and how it is taught in the public schools these days. The thing is, sometimes we as music educators get too focused on the final product and forget about the musical moments along the way. While I personally think that performance experiences in general music are incredibly important, I also believe that they should be stress-free and demonstrative of actually happens in our classrooms!

As I'm sure a lot of you are, I am in the midst of preparing for a holiday program. In my case, its with third grade. Below are the steps that I used to plan this performance, as well as others I've done in the past.

Whenever I plan performances, I always start by picking a theme. In all honesty, this theme will probably change a few times throughout the process, but I always start with something to get the ball rolling.

​For this year's holiday performance, I ended up with Christmastime around the world. I thought about my students and the population I serve, and I really wanted my students to have their understandings of different cultures expanded upon. I also knew that I wanted to be sure to include songs from Latin America, as I have a large percentage of students that live in Spanish-speaking homes.

Ok, so I had my theme. Now it was time to dig deep into the repertoire books, online databases, and Facebook groups to find high-quality repertoire. I personally use as much repertoire from the oral tradition as possible, especially with the theme that I chose for this performance.

When I  am looking at possible repertoire, I am looking for a few things. Firstly, I want to make sure that it is representative of the culture that it is attributed to. I think its important that if I am teaching something as a Mexican folk song, for instance, that I do my homework and make sure that it is really a folk song from Mexico.

Secondly, I look at the melodic and rhythmic elements that I can pull out of each song. For instance, I knew that my third graders were going to be working on Tika-Tika, Tika-Ti, and Ti-Tika, so I paid special attention to those songs that had extractable patterns with these rhythms. That way, I can teach concert repertoire without needing to let my curriculum stall in the process.

Lastly, I look to make sure that each song I choose is developmentally, musically, and thematically appropriate for the age of students I am looking for. I want to make sure that the music I am choosing is challenging enough for my students, but not too difficult for them to learn in the time we have to prepare. I also think it's really important to make sure the songs aren't too simple that they will be perceived as "baby-ish" by the older students.

Once I have all of the repertoire selected, I sit down and make an outline of the entire lesson sequence, starting from the day of the performance and working backward. I literally sit at my desk with a bunch of post-it notes and go lesson by lesson. I always know that my final two lessons are going to be some variation of a run-through, so that's always where I start. 

​Next, I go through my list of repertoire, along with the extractable elements of each, and compare them to my rhythmic and melodic sequences. I fill in any presentation moments in my sequence and then work backward from that to make sure I have enough preparation activities so that my students are ready for that presentation moment.

The last thing I do when inserting repertoire into my sequence is build in extension activities. Whether these be adding Orff instruments or creating a B section with rhythm cards, I think it's important to make sure that there are opportunities for extension and synthesis, even during concert preparation.

Creating meaningful performance opportunities for our students can be hard. But it doesn't need to be. If you are looking at the amount of pre-planning I am doing and thinking that I'm crazy, I get it. It's a decent chunk of work on your end up-front. But, I promise that the work that you put in at the beginning of the process will be well worth it.

I love using technology in my classroom to help reinforce musical concepts. There are so many great resources out there that make it easy for students to be creative with the help of technology such as iPads and Chromebooks.

When I started including technology in my classroom, I knew that I wanted to make sure anything I was including served a purpose in my classroom.  I think it can be easy to insert technology into our lessons, but sometimes we miss the mark when it comes to making sure that we are using technology in a way that supports our curriculum rather than replacing it.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I have all of the answers, because I definitely don't. What I will do is share some of my favorite ways to implement meaningful technology in my​ music classroom.

Incredibox is a great web-based activity to explore looping and ostinato. Students drag a shirt with a different symbol onto a performer which determines what the performer will loop.

This is a great way to explore a capella singing too! I usually pull this out when I talk about a capella singing and groups like Pentatonix with my 5th and 6th graders, but this site could also be used for younger and older ages.

I have students ask me to play Staff Wars almost every week! I use this game to help my students practice identifying the notes on the Treble Staff, although you can also set it for Bass and Alto Clefs!

One thing that is great about Staff Wars is that you can customize it to meet your students where they are. For instance, I turn off ledger lines when I use this game with my fourth graders, which helps them focus on what they really need to know now.

If you've never tried using Staff Wars before, I highly suggest it! You can download it for free on PC/Mac (I project mine onto my interactive white board) or you can download it on iPad for 99 cents!

Chrome Music Lab is my absolute favorite way to use technology in my classroom. There are so many great experiments (think of them more like individual Apps) on this free website!

Some of my favorite experiments are great for composition and musical exploration. One of my favorite ways to use the Chrome Music Lab is with Task Cards! These are great for centers rotations or group work, as it lets students explore at their own pace.

I also do a project each year with my fifth graders where they create compositions using the Songmaker experiment and then they practice and perform the compositions on color-coded instruments. I find this to be incredibly helpful at bridging the gap between music technology and some of the more 'traditional' musical modalities.

Implementing technology into our music curriculum can be a great way to bring 21st century skills into the music room. I doubt that many teachers would argue that we should exclude technology completely from our lessons.

However, I do believe it is important that we use technology in a way that is purposeful and not just for the sake of including technology. When I'm considering including technology into a lesson, I ask myself "why am I including this?" Does it help solve a problem? Does it engage a different learning modality? Or am I just including this for the sake of including a piece of technology?

I love using picture books in my classroom. It's a great way to promote literacy in my students, but it's also a phenomenal way to reinforce musical concepts in a different modality. What's great about picture books in the music classroom is that pretty much any book with a rhyme scheme can be easily included into our lessons. Beyond that, there are so many books that cover musical concepts and composers. 

While there are so many great books that can be used in the music classroom, I wanted to share a few of my absolute favorites and how I use them in my classroom.

I had to start out by sharing my all-time favorite book in my classroom. This book by Spike Lee and Tonya Lee Davis is perfect for introducing Ta and Ti-Ti. As the story progresses, the rhythms change their order. I love having my students repeat the words back to me in rhythm when we are working on one sound and two sounds on a beat. This book also has one page that has a quarter rest in it, so I like to use it to see if students can tell why that one page sounds different, which to me is a clue that we are working towards being ready for the presentation of the quarter rest.

If this book isn't already in your classroom library, stop what you are doing and go order it! This is such a great book for introducing the instrument families. It's also useful for describing what an orchestra and conductor are.

Farkle McBride starts out as a very young boy that wants to play an instrument. However, he can't seem to find one that he wants to stick with. He tries a bunch of different instruments throughout the story, but eventually he ends up being the stand-in conductor of the orchestra. It's then that young Farkle realizes that he enjoys being able to lead the different instruments together.

John Feierabend adapted a lot of really great song tales into children's books as a part of the First Steps in Music curriculum. I have a few of these song tales in my classroom, but one of my favorites is The Crabfish. The pictures are beautiful, and I truly believe that this adaptation does the original song tale justice.

I use this with some of my preschool and Cross-Cat classes, but I think it's also great for some older classes due to its minor modality. 

Ok, so this one is a classic. This book was always one of my absolute favorites as a child, and I love that I'm able to share it in my classroom. This book is great for teaching Ta and Ti-Ti. This is also a book that a lot of students have read before, so I've noticed that students get really excited when they see a book they recognize.

Becca over at Becca's Music Room has a great lesson on using this book to practice notating Ta and Ti-Ti. Go ahead and check that out too!

This is one of my favorite series of books that are easy to include into the music classroom. I like to start out the year with this particular book in the series, and then sprinkle in some of the other books in the series as the years go on.

The seasonal versions of these books are great at continuing the song tale throughout the year. It's also great at showing students how songs can be parodied and changed to create something new.

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​Looking back at my own musical upbringing, I was never the poster child of someone even remotely comfortable with improvisation and composition. At the time, I was very rigid with how I viewed music. I read the music on the page, and sang it. That was that. Whenever I was asked to come “off of the page,” I would really start to stress out.
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As I began to think of my own classroom, and the curriculum I employ, I knew I had to be aware of my own tendencies to avoid composition and improvisation in order to make sure that my students were given the best I could give them.

​My first step towards having students create compositions is having them notate the rhythm of a song they already know using popsicle sticks. While this is not composition by any means, I believe it is a low-stakes way to get students involved in the process of writing music down. Once we’ve practiced this activity for a couple of different songs (I usually do a mix of partner and solo), I move on into having students create their own choices to begin the path towards composition.

Once students are able to feel comfortable and successful in being able to write down a song they already know, I then work on having them take the next step into making their own choices. One of my favorite things I’ve used for this step is having students create a rhythmic burger composition. Not only does this help reinforce form, it is also an easy next step into students creating their own compositions. AND it can easily be adjusted for different ages and abilities by changing the form of the piece (I currently have ABA, ABABA, and ABACA).
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I like using this activity for a couple of reasons: Firstly, it is low-stakes and only involves rhythm. Students are able to be successful with relatively low effort on their part. I’ve found that by having more frequent activities like this allow students to build on their compositional abilities with little to no “freak outs” on the part of my students.

When it comes to my older kids, one of my favorite projects is an ostinato composition project that allows students to experiment with four types of ostinato in a fairly easy way! I’ve written out an outline of the structure I usually use for this process at the link below, but the general process starts with students learning the cup song to a known song and then extending that to perform their own parodies with ostinato embellishments!

I’ve been very impressed with the performances of my students each time I have done this project, and I am such a big fan about how students tend to create their own points of extension, which is AWESOME for differentiation!

I love giving students the opportunity to create their own music, and to take ownership in the music classroom. However, I know that I have many students, like me, that are uncomfortable with the notion of starting with nothing and making something new. By guiding students to take smaller steps, I believe we are able to increase student confidence and performance on these types of activities, which is win-win for sure!

I talked more in-depth about these composition resources and lessons in Midweek Check-In #2! If you are interested in learning more about these, you can find the resources, as well as a recording of the live event by checking out the show notes at the link above!

​For better or for worse, being a traveling teacher is a reality for a large percentage of music teachers, especially those at the elementary level. While I can vouch that there are definitely advantages and disadvantages of sharing your time between multiple schools, I can also vouch that you need to set some specific procedures for yourself so that you don’t go crazy.

I got my first taste of being a traveling teacher when I was doing my student teaching placement. In this situation, I spent 4 days of the week at one elementary school and the remaining day at another. This situation really made me aware of the differences between the schools, and I had to make sure I was being aware of these differences when I did my planning. I quickly found out that one lesson would not fit both schools.

When I took my current job, I really wanted to make sure that I made an effort to balance both schools. I knew that since I didn’t have any planning periods or lunch at the middle school, it would be easy for me to allow this school to be the other. While I still have work to go to make sure I am balancing both schools, I think I am better off because I recognized how easy it would be to focus on one more than the other.

When it comes to keeping your sanity as a traveling music teacher, my first piece of advice would be to make sure you are always one step ahead of everything. It can be easy to mess up the rotations between multiple buildings, or to leave an instrument or manipulative at a different building on a day you need it. To keep these things from happening too often, I have a few things to share that keep me organized:

1. Stay Ahead on Plans: Especially if you are juggling additional preps between multiple buildings, it can be easy to fall behind on planning. I’ve found myself a couple of times without a finished plan due to a change in schedule or a mistake in the rotation. To make sure that I am prepared in case something like this happens, I try to stay one or two lessons ahead of where the kids are. This also lets me understand my macro-sequence a little better as well!

2. Digitize EVERYTHING: I’m going to start this one with a disclaimer: ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP IN CASE TECHNOLOGY BREAKS.

But I carry very little paper copies of anything between buildings. My class rosters and grade books are on my iPad, my lesson plans are on Google Drive, and any interactive resources or presentations I use are stored in the cloud. This works for me because I do all of my planning, assessing, and resource organization digitally. I keep my Google Drive organized and indexed so I can find anything I need in a moment.

But again: ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP.

3. If It Can’t Be Digitized, Make TWO: Obviously there are some things that can’t be digitized. Certain manipulatives, flash cards, sub folders, and song props need to be a non-digital resource. For these, I make two of everything. If I truly believe I will use this resource for multiple years, I think it is well worth the time to make multiple so I don’t have to worry about transporting things between buildings.

Obviously there are certain things, like instruments and more expensive things, that you can’t practically have more than one. But by making multiples of things you can, it cuts down on the crazy amount of stuff that needs to be moved from one building to the next.
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4. Spread Some Roots: Being a traveler can be hard. As music teachers it is very easy to feel isolated, and that is made even more possible when you don’t have a home base all of the time. My advice to anyone that feels this way would be to spread roots.

When possible, get out of the music room. Eat lunch in the teacher’s lounge, go to staff outings, get to know the people around you. Don’t let being the other be an option! You are just as important of a part of each school you teach in as those who are there all of the time. You make just as much as an impact on the students you teach. Don’t forget that.
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As a traveling teacher, we often find ourselves in the middle of a juggling act: multiple schedules, multiple administrators, and multiple classroom spaces. Sometimes it can feel lonely, and others it’s nice to be able to have that change every once in a while. There are definitely ups and downs to being a traveling teacher, but I know that I still make a difference. I just happen to make a difference at two schools rather than one.

​I remember the weeks leading up to my final student teaching experiences: sitting at home over winter break feeling excited and nervous; anxious and apprehensive. After all, this was it. All of my college career was literally leading up to this point. I was finally going to be teaching! I was so excited. This was all that I had ever wanted, and it was just a few weeks away.

But something strange happened as the weeks turned into days. I started freaking out. How could I be ready? How was I supposed to know what to do? What to say? I turned to the faithful internet, and I was pretty disappointed in the lack of music-related posts I found about student teaching. While yes, some of the tips I found on non-music posts could be related to my situation, but it left a lot to be desired as I tried to mentally prepare myself to teach hundreds of students I had never met.

So here is where this lists comes in: these are the five things that I wish I would’ve been able to have known before I started my music student teaching.

1. You Won’t Know Every Students’ Name: One thing that is really hard about student teaching in music is that we have so many freaking students! And depending on how the schedule at your school works, you might only see each group of students a couple of times each week (if you’re lucky).

With that being said, its totally ok for you not to have every students’ name memorized, even by the end of your placement! This is something I still struggle with now, if I’m being completely honest!

My advice to you would be to just try your hardest. Try to remember as many names as you can, and if you make a mistake, just correct yourself and move on! I would also suggest having a seating chart with student names and photos! These can prove INCREDIBLY helpful for memorizing names, or to reference when working with a class!

2. Some People Won’t Understand Why You Are So Tired: One of the crappy things about being a student teacher is being in a weird “in-between” stage. You are on a professional schedule, but you aren’t 100% a professional. If your school is anything like mine was, you might still be forced to live on campus, which adds another facet of “awkward” to it!

I love my friends, but a lot of them (those that weren’t also student teaching) just didn’t understand why I was going to bed early, or why I wasn’t hanging out with them on the weekends like I used to. I truly don’t think they understood the magnitude of what student teaching really is.
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Just as an added bonus, I thought I would add a (cheesy) picture of me taken in the morning of my first day of student teaching, and one that a friend snapped of me that afternoon when I got home:

I love using folk songs in my classroom, for SO many reasons! There are so many fantastic songs with great games that I use in my classroom, but I also like using these folk songs to improve music literacy.

Even if it is only projecting the melodic contour of the song on my interactive whiteboard, I have found that by allowing students to have a visual representation of what they are singing helps them connect what they have been singing to what they see in front of them.

One of my favorite ways to have students practice this is by having them be the leader of our class. I give them one of my pointers and have them point to each note while the class sings all together. Not only have I seen this improve students’ abilities to track the notes, I have also seen this make it easier for students when we move onto having them notate the melodies or rhythms of the piece on their own.
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Some of my favorite resources in my classrooms are my folk song kits. I created these to give students the opportunity to have that visual representation of what they are singing, as I talked about previously. If you want to learn more about these, I have my folk song kit for Apple Tree available for free on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. You can claim your freebie by clicking the image below.

Taking The Next StepPreviously, I have shared how I like to have students do rhythmic notation in small groups using popsicle sticks and other small manipulatives, but I also frequently use a similar method for melodic notation.

As many of you can attest, the erasers from the Target Dollar Spot are perfect for melodic notation. I have personal staffs in my classroom that allow students to put the erasers (which are the PERFECT size to stand in as note heads) on the lines and spaces to show the melodic contour of the song we are working on.

I try to use erasers that have to do with the song we are singing. I’ve seen that students really buy in when using these, and I will never be going back to using standard manipulatives. Once students have notated the melody, they follow the melodic contour of the piece as we sing it as a class.

Some of my favorite folk songs in my classroom are Doggie Doggie, Mouse Mousie, Apple Tree, Wall Flowers, and sooooo many more! Not only do these songs all have easy elements to extract to reinforce musical concepts, but they have games to them that students love and ask for!
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If you are interested in learning more about the Folk Song Kits that I use in my classroom, check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

If you search “classroom management” on Pinterest, I promise you will find hundreds upon hundreds of resources and blog posts on how to improve the management of your classroom culture. In fact, that might be how you came across this blog post. To me, this screams to the fact that this is something that many of us out there struggle with. And let’s face it: sometimes getting through a lesson without losing your composure because you have a first-grader in the corner licking a Boomwhacker (even when you aren’t even using any instruments) is all you can do to survive a particularly unruly class. But for me, classroom management all comes down to the culture of my classroom.

In college, I had a methods professor who would always talk about the fact that we as teachers set the culture of our classrooms. While I didn’t realize it at the time, I would come to embody those words. While I doubt any of the information I will be sharing today will be utterly mind-blowing, or cause you to completely rethink your classroom management structure, I think it can be important for us to take some time to look through the culture of our own classrooms through the lens of our students.

1. Set Clear Expectations: I know, I know- this is one of those things that you hear people say allllll the time! But that doesn’t change the fact that this is where you can start to get yourself in trouble. How can we expect our students to live up to our expectations if we don’t make sure that they know what we expect of them? This year, I took the first three or four lessons to make sure that I had my expectations solidly explained and understood by my students. Now this doesn’t mean that I only worked on expectations for the first month or so of school! What it does mean is that I was incredibly conscious and purposeful about the activities that I selected.

It is much easier to have students experience your expectations, rather than simply repeating these expectations over and over again until you are blue in the face. Especially at the elementary level, I choose games and activities that allow for students to engage in self-regulation from day one! I have found that this has allowed me to reinforce my expectations instead of just repeating them, or referring to posted rules on my wall.
So what are the expectations that I have for my students? It doesn’t matter if I am working with kindergartners or sixth graders, I expect all of my students to be safe, responsible, and respectful.

I once got into a debate in college with a general education major when working together to brainstorm classroom rules as part of a seminar activity. He argued that my rules were not specific enough, and allowed students to get away with too much. I, on the other hand, thought the exact opposite! I believe that my expectations allow anything that hasn’t been explicitly stated to be absorbed into one of my three expectations, and eliminates that possibility of students being able to argue that their actions and behavior had not broken a more specific ‘rule.’ To this day I believe that having expectations set up like I stated above requires students to think more critically about their own behavior, and make necessary adjustments!


2. Be Consistent: It doesn’t matter if you have the most inclusive, all-encompassing, amazing expectations for your students if you aren’t consistent in your upholding of these standards. My students know that I have high expectations of them in everything they do, and that I am not one to let these expectations go by the wayside when things get rough.

I want to be very clear, I am not advocating for a one-size-fits-all classroom management model. To the contrary, I believe that redirections and responses to student behavior should be as appropriate to each student as possible. But this doesn’t mean that you have to let your expectations slide. Even with students that need a little extra support or redirection, we need to be consistent in making our expectations known, and how these expectations may lead to both positive and negative consequences.

What I am striving for in my classroom is for students to know that there will be a certain level of accountability for their actions. I want all of my students to know that my high expectations come from a place of love rather than a place of “being in charge.” I am fairly explicit with notion, particularly when redirecting students or discussing needed changes in behavior.


3. Let Them Know You Care: This brings me to what I believe is the most important part of establishing a positive classroom culture: making sure students know that you care for them on a individual basis. The often-repeated saying of “they won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” pops into my mind as I write this, and I can’t think of a more eloquent way to describe this. Students, especially those experiencing any variety of hardships, need to know that they matter to you.

Sometimes this is hard, especially when we as music teachers see hundreds of students each week for an increasingly limited amount of time. However, I firmly believe that not only is this in the best interest of your students, it will also pay out dividends for you as well. If students know you care, they are less-likely to want to disappoint you. They will work harder and longer and strive to make you proud, all saving you time spent on classroom management. Now I’m not saying to pretend to care so you have a smoother class. That would just be stupid. Let’s think of this as more of an added benefit rather than a reason to improve your student-teacher relationships.

Take a few seconds and think back to your favorite teachers from when you were in school. Why did you think of them? Why have they stayed with you all these years? Was it because they knew a lot about the subject they taught? Or was your admiration of them more centered on the relationships they fostered? I am willing to take a wager that the majority of the teachers you remember as your favorites had a good relationship with you, even though they still might have been incredibly knowledgable teachers.

Now What? 

Classroom culture is something that is incredibly important. What makes it difficult is that its something that we as educators need to be increasingly purposeful and aware of  in how we plan, implement, and nurture the culture in our classrooms. It’s also hard to change, and can take time to create the kinds of lasting and meaningful changes to create an improved culture within our classrooms. But I promise you that it is worth it.
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I urge you to answer these questions on your own, thinking about your current classroom culture: How do you foster community in your classroom? What strategies and methods have you used for classroom management? What has worked? What didn’t? What is something that you would like to try in your classrooms to foster positive relationships? Use the answers you have come up with to inform your next steps moving forward to foster a more inclusive, inviting, and positive classroom culture.