When students feel socially and emotionally connected, they are more likely to perform better academically. But how do teachers create a sense of community through virtual learning? This post shares 25 ways that teachers across grade levels can build classroom community online!
FREE Printable available at the end of the post!
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1-Choose a Student of the Week to Highlight Virtually
The first online activity that helps cultivate a sense of community is having a student of the week.
As a part of your back to school 2020 procedures, have students fill in a Google Slides page about themselves.
Then randomly choose a different student to highlight each week. You can broadcast the “Student of the Week” through whatever learning platform your school or district is using.
2-Incorporate Online Social Gatherings for Students to Just Chat with their Friends
Since students are practicing physical distancing, they deeply miss just hanging out with their friends.
So include virtual social gatherings in your virtual learning schedule to help students socialize.
The Sassy Apple Teacher offers fun and free virtual meeting ideas for teachers!
3-Host Virtual Spirit or Theme Weeks
Another great way to build classroom community online is to host virtual spirit weeks or weekly themes with students.
You can even invite students to submit ideas for things to do during spirit week.
Teacher blogger from A Sunny Day in First Grade has this fun freebie that gives a full week of virtual ideas.
4-Set Up Multiple Ways to Communicate with Students
Since so many important non-verbal communication cues are lost through screens, just typing messages by email won’t be enough.
Help your students feel more connected by offering multiple ways for them to reach out to you.
Here are some ideas to get the ball rolling:
- Set up a Google Form Student Check-In Sheet
- Send postcards in the mail
- Have a special block of time that allows students to call you
- Enable your Google Classroom settings to receive messages from students
- Schedule brief one-on-one virtual meetings with students
These are just a few ways to get to know your students beyond your subject area teaching.
5-Encourage Student Autonomy with Digital Choice Boards
For older students, you can build classroom community online by allowing them to have choices with their activities.
One way to do this is with learning menus a.k.a choice boards.
I use printable and digital choice boards that give my students options with their literacy centers.
Using choice boards has worked so well in my class over the years that I have an entire detailed post dedicated to them: How I Use Choice Boards to Organize & Run Literacy Centers.
Once students have been trained on how to use them, choice boards help your students feel a sense of ownership with the learning process.
6-Use Zoom Breakout Rooms to Organize Small Group Instruction
Collaboration in learning teaches important social skills to kids.
You don’t have to give this up just because we are distance learning.
Use a virtual tool such as Zoom Breakout Rooms to put students in small groups online for work projects and assignments.
This allows them to build relationships with each other while learning.
7- Give Encouraging Feedback to Students with Printable & Digital Sticky Notes
Research shows that giving detailed and consistent feedback to students strengthens social-emotional learning.
This definitely applies to distance learning situations.
So whether your school has reopened or you’re teaching remotely, you can give encouraging feedback to students with printable and digital sticky notes.
I use several pre-typed templates that I print on sticky notes.
As I assess my students’ assignments, I can quickly pull one of these stickies and attach to their work for immediate feedback.
This ensures that my students get clear, detailed information from me regarding their work.
Plus, it gives me more chances to connect with them beyond a grade, which impacts our sense of community as a class.
8-Play Trivia Learning Games Using Kahoot or Quizziz
The eighth way to build community while distance learning is to use platforms like Kahoot and Quizziz for review and practice.
When students are bored, they are not engaged! Students who are engaged with learning also tend to misbehave more.
Not only does this hinder their learning, but it dismantles a sense of community for everyone in the classroom.
And just because students are now using a device for all their learning doesn’t mean they will naturally show excitement about distance learning.
You can make learning fun by turning lessons into game-style activities using Kahoot and Quizziz!
9-Be Sure Your Learning Activities Highlight & Celebrate Diversity
Anti-racist teaching AND culturally responsive teaching (which, by the way, are not the same thing!!) are mandatory for creating a classroom environment that feels like a community!
Whether you are teaching face-to-face or online, make sure you’re highlighting and celebrating diversity in all forms.
Here are some specific examples:
- Does the clipart in your learning resources show students of all races, genders, physical abilities?
- Are the main characters of your read-aloud/chapter books all the same, or do they represent students from diverse backgrounds?
- When you decorate your physical or virtual classroom, does it include details that make students from certain demographics feel marginalized?
- Do you only mention the achievements of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) when a date on the calendar signifies a holiday for them? Or do you highlight their contributions to society all year long?
If you read these examples and you still aren’t sure, these posts provide even more detailed examples to help you:
Anti-Racist and Culturally Responsive Teaching Resources
- 15 Ways Teachers Encourage Racism in the Classroom
- Books That Teach Kids About Racism
- Resources for Culturally Responsive Teaching
- 5 Fresh Ways to Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Black History Month Books for Older Kids
10-Use Flipgrid for Students to Send Virtual Happy Birthday Videos
Another huge way to build classroom community online is to find creative ways to celebrate students’ birthdays!
One way you can do this is by using the free social learning platform called Flipgrid.
Here’s how you can use it for birthday celebrations during distance learning:
- Once you create an account, set up a board topic that says something like “Happy Birthday Hakeem!”
- Send the special code to students through your online learning system.
- Give them instructions for how to record a video snippet of themselves saying happy birthday to Hakeem.
- Create a grid of all Hakeem’s classmates birthday videos and send it to him on his special day
Boom. Bada. Bing! You just made Hakeem smile wider than the Great Wall of China!
What an amazing way to help students feel included, happy, and a part of a strong classroom community!
More Engaging Ways to Build Classroom Community Online
Just as promised, this post has 25 ways you can create a strong community of learners–even while distance learning!
11-25 are listed in this free download. (No email address required! Just click and go.)
And remember that relationship building is king for learning and classroom management. This is why having a healthy classroom community is worth every single effort.
Happy Teaching 🦋
