Culture & Climate

As you continue into your transition into Personalized Learning, it is imperative to spend as much time cultivating the culture and climate within the classroom.  At full implementation, the students should have as much say in their environment (climate) and interactions with one another (culture).  These two terms are used together but do mean drastically different things.  According to Merriam-Webster culture means, "1.  beliefs, customs of a particular society, group, place or time  2.  a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, art, etc.  3. a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization."  All 3 definitions play a large factor in classroom culture.

In a personalized learning class creating a culture is done through many artifacts:
1.  Shared Vision~ Answers the question why we are here at school?  Establishing a shared vision is done through various formats... unpacking your school's current vision, 5 Why's (ask students why we come to school, turn their answer into the next question... continue 5 or more times to have one sentence on why they are here),  etc.  Your goal is to create an overarching ideal of why school is important.  Keep this posted in your classroom and refer to it when needed.


2.  Code of Cooperation~ Answers the question how are we going to obtain our vision? Students devise a list of behaviors that are needed to make sure the vision occurs.  This can be done through the Affinity Process.  Ask students, "If you were in the perfect classroom, what would you see, hear, and feel?"  Have students write responses individually on post it notes (one idea per post-it note).  After, have students combine their post-it notes then each pile then gets a title.

(This one was from 2 years ago.  No updates yet because our poster maker is broken!)

 3.  Behavior Matrix~ Answers the question what do those behaviors look like?  The matrix is an intricate part to Personalized Learning, make sure the students understand this because it will transfer into academics eventually.  Matrix levels are:  Level 4- Advanced, Level 3- Proficient, Level 2- Developing, Level 1-Emerging.  You can play with the language depending on your grade level.  Students will generate expected behaviors at a all levels.  It is easiest to do level 3 first, level 4, level 1, then level 2.  Students will use this to track their behavior.



                     Students will begin tracking their behavior to start getting behavior goals.


4.  SOPs~Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) allow students to know expected routines.  These again are created as a class and have student input.  These can be done for a variety of things... Morning Routine, Library Books, Lunch, Sharpening Pencils, etc.

Next post~ Culture & Climate continued and Academics