Set the Tone for
a Classroom Community
Fisher (1995) notes that teachers are responsible for setting the tone of the classroom:
"The children look to us to set the tone for caring and learning, and they copy what we do. If we listen to them, they listen to each other. If we value them and support, encourage, and celebrate what they do, they will do the same for each other. If we encourage risk taking and accept approximations, they do the same for themselves and for others. If we are learners in the classroom, they become learners, too.A positive caring and learning community generates from our positive ways throughout the day. It matters that we greet everyone as they come in, help a child pick up the crayons she has dropped, listen carefully to stories from home, read our own book during silent reading, and celebrate the piece of writing that a child has put in the sharing basket. When we are positive, the children are positive. When we demonstrate attitudes of caring along with the skills, strategies, and content of learning, we become the bonded adult (Holdaway, 1986) or more expert member of the club (Smith, 1988) whom the children emulate and look to for assurance that this classroom is physically, psychologically, and emotionally a safe place in which to take risks." (pp. 3-4)
