Speaker 1: All teachers want their students to be successful. And to be successful at school, students need to feel safe physically, socially, and emotionally. Creating a positive classroom culture creates a sense of safety, enhances student learning, and improves both teacher and student well-being. A positive classroom culture and school connectedness improves academic performance, increases school attendance and completion, and reduces the occurrences of violent and destructive incidents. An effective teacher uses a variety of strategies to develop a supportive and inclusive classroom culture where all your students feel safe, connected, and valued. There's strong scientific evidence to show that feeling connected to school is a protective factor for students against disruptive and violent behaviour, for mental health issues, disengagement from school, drug use, and early sexual experiences. So it's vital that students feel connected to school, and that begins with you as the teacher in the classroom and building your classroom culture. The Wingspread Declaration on School Connectedness reported that student achievement hinges on connection to school as a place where students feel that teachers care about them as people. In this video, I'll share with you some of the strategies that help develop a positive classroom culture that promotes student and teacher well-being. Having a positive vibe in your classroom will make you feel better, it'll increase your job satisfaction, and it will increase students' sense of belonging and connectedness, and in turn, promote greater academic achievement. My name's Mari Amaro, and I'm the Principal Presenter at the Highly Effective Teacher. I'm a teacher, and I've been working with students and supporting teachers for over 30 years. I'm passionate about teacher well-being, and I combine research and experience to provide strategies that improve teacher well-being, especially the practices that take no extra teacher time, that can actually give you back time by helping you to work more effectively. I love coaching teachers so that they thrive in the teaching profession, not just survive. Improved teacher well-being means improved student well-being, and that contributes to better academic and social outcomes for all our students. If you'd like to learn more about teacher well-being, please subscribe to our channel and ring the bell so that you receive notifications of all our videos. When you subscribe, that helps to support the channel and means that we can keep making these videos and get the information and support out to more teachers. It's the role of the teacher to create a positive, safe learning environment that promotes appropriate behaviour and good learning. Positive classroom cultures have some simple elements in common, and the teacher upholds the principles that encourage productive student connectedness, behaviour and achievement. Number one, treat every student with dignity. Students need to feel respected in the classroom if they're to learn. And if you want a classroom that hums, every student must be treated with dignity, no matter what their behaviour. This creates a safe classroom culture for all students. When students display inappropriate or unacceptable behaviour, it's even more important that your response models respectful behaviour and maintains the dignity of you and your student. And the way teachers treat students when their behaviour is inappropriate or disruptive sets the tone for the classroom culture and translates to how students treat each other. If you want to learn more about the importance of showing respect for students and how to do that, check out our video on respect. Number two, be consistent, be fair, be predictable. Not asking for much, really. Do the best you can. When students know what to expect from you, they can feel safe, secure and trusting. And the way you act on a day-to-day basis is more important than what you say because it determines how students feel and the nature of the classroom culture. When you show up to class prepared, calm and excited to see them, you're creating the perfect environment for student success. As John Hattie's research showed, it's the teacher who is the deciding factor in the classroom. It's the teacher who creates the climate. Number three, use positive language. On the birth of my first child, Michael, my mother-in-law, a beautiful woman who had raised eight children gave me some of the best advice that I've ever had. She said, say yes as often as possible. And she explained that while she didn't mean letting children have everything they wanted, it was how you phrase your responses to them. Words matter. Your choice of words can mean the difference between a positive or a negative classroom culture and students feeling like you're always saying no. For example, if Johnny asked to play on the computer, you could say, no, you haven't even started your work yet or you could say, yes, when you've finished your work. One response is more open and reassuring than the other, offering the student the very real opportunity to participate in activity and you're not pointing out what they haven't done. Most of what teachers say to students could be rephrased in the same way to sound more positive and encouraging. And when it's delivered in an optimistic tone of voice with appropriate body language, this can dramatically affect the tone of your classroom culture. And if you're interested in learning more about how body language influences your communication with your students and with others, check out our video on body language and relationships. When you're giving instructions to your students, think about the words and the tone you use. Yes, you can have free time once you've completed your classwork. Yes, you can chat with your friends once the first two questions are completed. Yes, you can go on the computer as soon as your desk is tidy. Yes, the class can have a game once the room is back to order. When you put a positive spin on the words you use with your students, you go a long way to creating the kind of positive culture that you want. Number four, have high expectations. Believing in your students and having high expectations for their work and for their behaviour creates a classroom culture of achievement and you show what you expect from your students through both your language and your behaviour. Positive words and actions tell students that you believe in them and that you have high expectations for them. What adults believe about a young person's capacity often determines what will be achieved. Having high expectations doesn't mean that you ride a student and punish them when they don't perform, but what it does mean is that you encourage all students to do their best and you don't accept less when you know they can do better. This also may mean that you give them the opportunity to redo a test or a task because you know that they can achieve more. High expectations means that you don't accept that a student cannot learn. You search relentlessly to find alternative ways to make the learning accessible for your students. Perhaps you enlist other students for peer tutoring or you organise for the student who's struggling to teach someone younger or less able so that they can boost their confidence. Having high expectations for your students may mean that you offer alternative ways for a student to demonstrate learning outcomes because they find writing difficult. Number five. A classroom culture has fair behaviour management processes. At the beginning of the school year or the semester, set up behaviour management processes in your classroom that are agreed upon and understood by everyone. Teach your students the behaviour you expect, give them opportunities to practice, use positive reinforcement and give them all the opportunities for success. Setting clear ground rules means that the positive classroom culture that you want will develop, showing students how to behave, how to treat each other and that ensures that students will learn more effectively. And number six. Ask the students what they expect of you. Ask students what they want from you and you might be surprised. Most kids will say they want you to be on time, give them interesting work and not yell. And most teachers would agree that these expectations are essential if you're going to have a positive classroom environment and most teachers would try to do that. In a student-centred classroom, students voice their wants and needs in order to have the best chance of learning. Giving students the opportunity to state their expectations for you increases the likelihood that they'll be more invested in what happens in the classroom. And nobody may have ever asked them that before, so it will contribute to your classroom culture and they're more likely then to follow your expectations. Thanks for watching our video. Stay safe and happy teaching. Music . .