February 23, 2015, in Fife Lake, MI
Last week I was happy to get a horrible parking spot. Seriously. Walking across campus on a -26F morning made me smile (and my cheeks bright). That’s crazy, you may be thinking, but I wasn’t happy to be out in the colder-than-Alaska–I was happy because it meant that the normal amount of NMC students made it to class on time despite the many additional obstacles the extreme cold created for them.
Even if you started out the semester with some strategies to build a warm classroom community, this time of the semester prior to gearing up for midterms is a good time for re-visiting your classroom temperature.
- “What are the characteristics of a positive learning culture?” (NMC Essential Questions of Teaching and Learning)
As the semester progresses and students get deeper into their coursework, the answer to this may change even within the same classroom. It’s never too late or too early to invest valuable class time community-building. One rule of thumb is simply that as the stressors on individual student learning increase, the facilitation of a positive learning classroom culture should increase accordingly.
Here are a few icebreaker and other easy-to implement classroom culture activities:
Graffiti on icy campus window:
- First Day of Class Activities that you can morph to check-in on student progress at any time
- Icebreakers for the college classroom
- Sometimes a classroom management tune-up helps warm up classroom culture
- Building inclusive classrooms and connecting with your students from Cornell
- More icebreakers for the college classroom from Cornell