I long for a decent snowfall here in Central Ohio.  I dream of days when snow was always around; bright, shiny, and glistening.  Snow was a daily part of my life growing up in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State and I bet you can image what my college days in Buffalo looked like.  Snow was just a way of life.

Last week we got our first decent snowfall during the week and had a snow day.  I walked outside.  I shoveled the driveway.  I tried to help my dog find his tennis ball we lost in the cul-de-sac snow piles.   I added bird seed to my feeders to help my feathered friends.  As evening came, I got restless.  I knew recess would be inside tomorrow and my heart and soul said it shouldn’t be inside.

At 8:10pm I sent an email and a See Saw message to families.  I wanted to double guarantee everyone saw this classroom news.  I asked everyone to bring snow pants, boots, hats, mittens or gloves because we would be spending recess outside.  I technically had recess duty and I wanted to watch my children have fun and feel joyful.  I do believe snow can be joyful.

The students got themselves dressed with excitement and independence.  We went outside to embrace the sunshine and the snow.  Then I had a moment of weakness amongst the joy and fun my students were feeling.  I thought, “What if someone questions me being out here?”  I had asked my team to join me but they chose not to.  I get it, not everyone likes snow.  Then I watched and listened.

We were investing in our community.  We were smiling and laughing.  We were collaborating while digging tunnels in a bank of snow.  We were creating new games when we made a snowball and tried to make a basket with the basketball hoop.  We asked to do something we couldn’t normally do in winter; go out into the field.  Have you ever watched 19 students flopping around and making snow angels?  Pure joy.  We had to problem solve when someone pushed snow into something we were trying to do.  We got to be kids.  We got to enjoy life.  We got to be together.

There are lots of ideas for ways to create a community.  Once we create communities we need to invest on fostering communities.  Communities need tweaking and uplifting every once in a while.  I realized this day tweaking and uplifting didn’t need elaboration. It just needed simple, different, and an embracing environment.

It had been years since I saw my college roommate!  I pulled into her driveway and there she was waiting for me.  She had pulled a lawn chair onto the blacktop just watching the road.  It reminded me of myself as a little girl waiting for my grandparents to come over for my birthday.  We both hurried to hug and squeeze and we couldn’t stop talking.  My high school daughter was with me and slowly walked around the mini-van and shut my door.  It was so good to see her.  All those years melted away and didn’t matter.  We picked right up where we left off.   Our whole time together was filled with talk; we had so much to catch up on and discuss.  This experience reminded me about the entrance to my classroom after a long break and how could I create, foster, or embrace this same experience for a classroom community.  Everyone should feel such joy to see others.

When I began teaching, one of my mentors shared with me an activity to help students get to know each other.  It’s a Find Someone Who (people scavenger hunt)…read a book, went to the zoo, played outside, ate cookies, or saw their grandma.  It gives new friends an invitation for talk.  They can’t use themselves and they can’t repeat a friend.  It’s hard to meet new friends and I love how this provides some direction and language to foster talk.  The students have really enjoyed this activity over the years and I soon created other versions for after long breaks from each other.

After many years, I added to a previous version with more talk support.  I added a question to help foster more conversation; find someone who read a book followed with what book did you read?  It changed the pace of this activity.  They lingered more.  They shared more information with each other and sometimes extended their talk beyond the prompt.  They were focused on finding out a bit more information and not just “fill” a spot with a name.  It felt natural.  It reminded me about those first few moments in the driveway.   Reconnecting with my college roommate felt good.  It was easy and comfortable.  How can we expect students to jump right back to learning if they don’t reconnect socially and share what they’ve been doing?  Talk fosters a community and a community can make things easy and comfortable.

Dismissal time comes and goes every day and every day I start to worry a little bit.  Our school procedure is involved.  It requires me to walk with my students through the hallways to various drop of points and then taking my bus riders outside to their individual buses.

I worry about this time of day.  I have a clipboard with daily sheets for our “going home” plans.  Changes happen and I note them with post it notes.  I “lost” a kindergartener once and quickly found her in a different drop off location but I’ll never forget that worry and shutting my classroom door to burst into tears.  I am blessed to spend each day with my students and I think my biggest job is to get each student back home safely to their families.

It was about a month or two into this school year and we were getting organized for dismissal.  The students had their backpacks.  They were sitting at the carpet and I had started to line them up according to the order of their drop off location.  Everything seemed to be in order when I heard, “George come here, she already called your name.  Right here is where bus 51 goes.”

I watched and thought, Bingo; we have a classroom community!  It was such a small moment and one that could be easily over looked.  A student was looking out for a classmate and wanted to make sure he was on the bus with him to go home.  I wish you could have heard his voice; the helping student had a kind and caring inflection.  A nurturing voice with a sense of urgency.

When do you know…what small things can we look for to confirm there is a community in our classroom?  These two boys don’t necessarily share common characteristics or interests besides attending our classroom together but I would add to the dictionary’s definition of community to include – individuals who spend a lot of time together and care about each other; showing acts of kindness.