When students can feel safe, they can focus on learning. Creating a classroom environment that is friendly and inclusive involves a 360-degree look at your teaching methods and materials. Here are 5 ways to create inclusive classrooms.
1. Prepare for teachable moments
Planning for teachable moments will make a difference in developing a safe learning environment for all your students. It’s imperative to watch for students excluding or bullying others to stop hurtful actions immediately. Having planned responses for different situations to teach students acceptable and friendly behaviors towards their peers will pay dividends. By preparing ahead of time, you’ll be ready to give students constructive suggestions on how they can be respectful and inclusive.
2. Incorporate universal design for learning
Eliminating unnecessary hurdles for students improves learning experiences. Applying universal design in education can help you remove educational barriers. To incorporate universal design, look for ways to make your lesson plans flexible by incorporating multiple ways to present information, including diverse visuals and learning aids. Teaching tools like document cameras from IPEVO that magnify content to help students with visual or learning disabilities focus and see learning materials better can also enhance demonstrations and lesson materials for all students.
3. Create a sense of community
Creating weekly class meeting can build a sense of community in your classroom. One activity you and your students can do is work towards a shared goal to earn a special reward like extra recess time or extra game time. Finding ways to make your classroom welcoming can make students feel safe and ready to learn.
4. Scaffold your lessons
By scaffolding lessons, every child works on the same objective and outcomes, but with activities that are appropriate for their learning and behavioral needs. This means you’ll need to focus on learning the needs of each student to properly support their learning.
5. Support Students’ Potential
For your students who want to go into fields, including STEM that lack diversity, sharing resources, support, and scholarship opportunities can make a difference.
Explore just a few of the organizations supporting minorities in tech:
- Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
- Blacks in Technology
- Black Girls Who Code
- Lesbians Who Tech
- Black Boys Who Code
- Girls Who Code
- Gender-Inclusive Biology
Thoughts? Share with us in the comments below.
Sources:
https://www.nshss.org/blog/5-strategies-for-building-community-in-the-classroom/
https://www.hmhco.com/blog/strategies-for-building-community-in-the-classroom
https://planbee.com/blogs/news/how-to-create-an-inclusive-classroom-12-tips-for-teachers
https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2022/06/5-organizations-making-k-12-tech-more-inclusive
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