At the beginning of the year, we used a variety of strategies to get to know our students and continue to learn about them as the year progresses. We get to know students personally and recognize them as an individual.

So how do we get started in creating a safe learning environment? We firmly believe that you have to seriously consider what your classroom looks like and feels like. Creating a place that is safe for students to ask questions, to take a risk and be the best they can be is vital for optimal learning ! The first thing we did was to clean out the classroom, even the teacher desk! Everything in the classroom, has a purpose and is connected to student learning.
A goal for us is to get to KNOW our students and show that we care. We believe every child can learn.

Taking the time needed to establish routines and to teach skills necessary for small group work is important. Depending on your grade level and your student's experience, it could take up to 4 weeks to teach lessons, to model expectation, and to establish what your classroom feels like. 

Studies show that a valuable skill for students to develop for the 21st Century is the ability to work and collaborate in small groups. In our class, we build a collaborative culture by introducing a number of team building activities such as pair discussion (think-pair-share), a lesson that works well with students is "Home Court Advantage: Showing Friendliness" (Daniels & Harvey, 2009, p. 127)

At the beginning of the school year we teach our students how to investigate questions and to demonstrate their learning and understanding by introducing mini- research. We model several lessons by demonstrating our own questions and curiosities and teach them the inquiry process. The students also ask questions, search for answers and share their knowledge. As a class we brainstormed questions for mini-inquiries, the following are a few examples of the questions they came up with: What exactly is the value of homework? The new 3D movies are fun, but is the movie going experience really better? How much sleep do we need? Do kids really need cell phones?
It's interesting to note that the students find out that one question can lead to many more questions.