Building a Sense of Belonging in Classrooms: Fostering Connection and Compassion (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Anything else special happen this week in Friends?

Speaker 2: In the pool, I did a cannonball. I know how to swim. You know how to swim? I do. I know how to blow bubbles underwater. You do? Me too.

Speaker 3: As human beings, one of the most essential needs we have is the need to belong. In school, children need a sense of belonging to be able to be productive learners. They need to be connected to their fellow students, connected to their teachers, to also be affirmed in who they are in a way that is positive and accepting. In a belonging classroom, there's a community being explicitly built. The teacher knows each child and things about each of those children that they can mention and draw on.

Speaker 1: I pay attention. I listen. I'm really invested in what they tell me. The students feeling loved, students feeling nurtured, students feeling like they have a place at school, they're safe. It activates their brain cells.

Speaker 4: Sense of belonging is one of the most important activators of a child's engagement in learning. Everything about activating a child's cognitive skills begins with activating their social connectedness. The energy for learning is coming from the social connection that children have. But in the end, we're trying to come up with an agreement. Excellent.

Speaker 5: We're not going to comment, question. We're only going to encourage.

Speaker 6: Because they're culturally and linguistically diverse students, I want to really make sure that we are making them feel connections. All the writing we do in our class, it's very much about them. It helps and promotes them to find their own voice and to share their stories.

Speaker 2: Sometimes people think every Muslim person is a target or is a terrorist. Thank you, Anissa.

Speaker 7: What did this show us about what we are good at as a group?

Speaker 8: Working together because we often argue a lot.

Speaker 7: Today, we did an activity that was really designed to get them thinking about how they're going to support each other. I think that reiterating the idea that we're in this together, I think it's hard to find the time, but doing some team building exercises at the beginning of the year and revisiting them can really help illustrate that point.

Speaker 3: In a belonging classroom, they have a community that may meet in classroom meetings to problem solve together, to read stories together, to tell successes and accomplishments or important events together. They celebrate like families do. Things that each other have done or have experienced. Let's talk about what we admire about some of our friends.

Speaker 2: I admire Jazara because she is so compassionate.

Speaker 1: And when we're talking about being compassionate and being supportive of one another, it's to build that deeper connection for everyone just to feel like this is their school family, this is somewhere they're loved, they're nurtured, they're taken care of, they're valued. Thank you for speaking.

Speaker 3: The community becomes a place where you can bring your emotions, your fears, your needs. You can be honest about what's going on and know that there will be acceptance, support and love. That's available to carry you through.

Speaker 8: We all can work together and we all can try to strategize together and create a better pathway for others to be successful. And we can make it fun.

Speaker 7: They're working together. They take care of each other, not just personally but academically. We're always pushing each other. We're always pushing each other. We're always pushing each other.