Morning Meetings and
Caring Learning Communities
Creating caring
learning communities is a specific goal of
comprehensive character education and supports
excellence in academic and character development.
One strategy to help achieve a caring classroom
environment is the regular involvement of
students in morning meetings.
The morning
meeting is a specific strategy to create a
positive transition for students from home to
school. Primary grade teachers are most familiar
with a traditional meeting format where the
children may gather around a calendar to note the
date, weather and other seasonal events. The
morning meeting strategy expands on this concept
to include three important components: 1. Creating
a positive transition for students into school, 2.
Focusing on a team-building activity and, 3. Developing
positive expectations for the school day. Each of
these goals will be discussed in an effort to
describe an effective morning meeting.
Students come
to class with a variety of morning experiences.
Psychologists confirm that positive experience
leads to future willingness to cooperate or offer
assistance to others. Positive transition
activities may be as simple as having each
student turn to one or two classmates with a
positive greeting using the classmate’s
name. More elaborate greetings can be designed to
include student recognition of positive
attributes of classmates. Positive transitions
into school help all students begin the school
day with a willingness to join a learning
community.
A team-building
activity may include the initial greeting, and
emphasize how all class members belong and
contribute to the class. Team building activities
can help students recognize they share similar
goals and celebrate each other’s successes.
Examples of team building activities include:
students interviewing each other to create a list
of fun activities shared by others, students
working in pairs to learn about their family and
origin of their name, and class brainstorming the
characteristics of a friend. Activities such as
these can be completed in under 15 minutes and
when facilitated in a positive manner, help a
collection of individuals develop into a
community of learners.
Finally, the
morning meeting should provide some focus on the
upcoming day and help establish positive
expectations. A simple review of the daily
schedule with a request for students to
anticipate a topic of interest can be effective.
Elementary teachers can introduce a topic and
leave the students with a cliff hanger. Secondary
teachers may ask students to anticipate what
projects students are assigned and request they
clarify what steps can be taken to successfully
complete the task.
All three
components of the morning meeting should be kept
positive, fresh with new activities, and focused
on including the whole group. Morning meetings
offer a key to comprehensive character education
by helping build a caring community of learners.
The following resources are suggested to help
teachers plan effective morning meetings: Energizers
and Icebreakers, by Elizabeth
Foster (Ed. Media Corp., 612-781-0088) and, Tribes,
by Jeanne Gibbs (Center Source Inc.,
707-577-8233).
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