5 Classroom Strategies for Creating a Safe Community

Classrooms embrace diversity in several ways. There are students from different religions, races, and nationalities, each having a different mindset and a varied learning pattern. Ensuring every student feels included and has a sense of belongingness becomes a challenge for the teachers. Especially the focus of the early months of a Dubai Montessori school is on creating a safe community in a classroom and developing a cordial environment. However, the struggle doesn’t end here. Every Dubai Indian school teacher would agree that creating a safe community is a continuous process. 

5 classroom Strategies for Creating a safe community

Here are some tips to help Montessori educators develop a sense of belonging and build a safe community.

Make Efforts to Know Each Other

The fundamental aspect of creating a safe community is to make efforts to know each other. The parents and teachers should get to know each other well. Moreover, the students in a classroom should also know each other well. Teachers can dedicate the first few days to introduction and induction, where children introduce themselves well and gain better awareness about their differences. Make them talk about their religion, beliefs, and opinions through different activities to ensure everyone knows each other enough. 

Make them feel Comfortable

If the students aren’t comfortable speaking in front of the entire class or refrain from sharing their views, this process of knowing them will prove futile. Hence, the teacher must ensure that every student is comfortable in the classroom. Choose to play activities and games they like and bring humor into your teaching pedagogy so the child feels comfortable and shares everything without hesitation. Understand that some children take time to open up. So, be patient and give them their time and space to get ready to be a part of the classroom. 

Use Different Teaching Strategies

Every child has a different learning pattern. While some learn well through pictures and videos, others respond well to practical activities. So, a Dubai Montessori school teacher must use different teaching strategies for their class. Try various methods, and even if you plan an activity, you should keep variations. It will ensure that every possible learning pattern of a child gets addressed and there is no monotony in the learning process. Let every student choose the activity he wants to participate in, ensuring that everything teaches them the lesson of empathy and mutual respect.

Working in Groups

Working together in groups is the most effective strategy to bring children closer to each other and explore their differences. Plan activities that get executed in groups, and it will help you develop a sense of harmony with each other. While working as teams, they share ideas and opinions and get awareness about different mindsets. These activities will give much-needed exposure to children, and their awareness level will improve. Ensure you keep changing the groups to make students feel the essence of diversity in a classroom. 

Respect the Differences

Lastly, the most significant thing is to respect the differences. With the help of group activities and efficient teaching pedagogies, the students will identify and learn about the differences. However, a true sense of belonging and harmony comes with acceptance. Therefore, teachers should work to ensure that every student accepts the differences with an open mind and respects others’ opinions. They need to learn that it is ok to have different opinions and that anything different is not wrong. 

Teachers can effortlessly build a safe classroom community with these simple yet effective strategies. It works best for students as they learn to respect different perspectives early in life. These children adapt to any environment conveniently and even make others feel included and part of society.