School Climate

            A positive school climate  is essential to promote good student achievement, and it is important to foster positive student attitudes.  A favorable school climate provides the framework within which students, teachers, administrators, and parents function cooperatively and productively.

            A supportive school requires special planning and effort from all parties in the school community.  An effective school atmosphere is enhanced through careful planning, hard work, and effective leadership.  A conducive school environment will increase student learning and nurture healthy attitudes and relationships.  Thus, the development of a positive school climate should remain a high priority goal in each school and department.

            School climate is more than simply good morale.  A positive climate requires a team effort; each member of the staff must dedicate herself or himself to efforts aimed toward the betterment of the school.  By focusing on school goals and student outcomes, the team approach will foster effective personal relationships.  The ideal school climate is achieved when each member of the team strives to accomplish established individual and group goals.

            Children respond to attractive environments.  A concerted effort should be made to maintain a clean, healthy building as well as neat, attractive classrooms.  The custodial staff assigned to each building has the responsibility for cleaning and maintaining the building; however, professional staff members and students have the responsibility for maintaining neat classrooms and caring for furniture and other property.  Teaching children to be neat and to respect public property is one of the duties of a teacher.  Administrators are responsible for supervising the work of staff members to insure that the maintenance efforts and general appearance of the school campus are adequate.

            Numerous strategies and practices are available for teachers to maintain or improve a positive classroom climate.  In most instances, care should be taken to diagnose the environment before planning major changes.  Some practices which are almost always appropriate include:

 

·        Develop skills in and use a variety of teaching methods.

·        Provide alternatives in resource materials which can be used by students for preparation of assigned work.

·        Study the use of time to be certain that time spent on task is congruent with the importance of the tasks.

·        Review the class list on a regular basis to monitor the nature and type of communication you are having with students.

·        Check student understanding and awareness of the teacher expectations for social and academic behaviors.

·        Inform parents and, whenever possible, involve them in class activities.

·        Communicate with home and with persons significant to learners about their accomplishments and suggest out-of-school strategies for reinforcement of classroom experiences.

·        Become aware of the interests of students; show interest in their out-of-classroom and out-of-school experiences.

·        Brainstorm the major outcomes -- attitudinal, academic, and behavioral --which you expect and plan methods of assessment so that instructional effectiveness is assessed.

 

            The teacher’s expectations of self and expectations of students provide the starting point for positive classroom climate.  As is true in all aspects of climate development, the goal is to avoid a sense of futility or sense of complacency and work toward establishing effective teacher-student communication and relations.  Students are very perceptive - a teacher must possess and demonstrate an “I Care” attitude.