Creating a Classroom Community Using Virtual Morning Meetings

As a teacher, it is crucial to create a classroom community. A classroom community can be formed in many ways. By creating a community, students will feel comfortable and welcome around their teachers and peers. This can be a struggle in a virtual setting, where students do not always get to have the same genuine interactions that they would in person. One way to create a virtual classroom community is through morning meetings. During my student teaching experience, I used morning meetings as a way to create a community in my virtual classroom. My research is supported by Maslow’s Self-Actualization Theory. Maslow argues that a person must meet various levels of needs to become the best version of themselves possible. A classroom community that welcomes, includes, and cares for each of its members can help the students meet their safety needs, belongingness and love needs, and esteem needs (Maslow, 1971). I used movement, read aloud books, sharing about ourselves, and games to create a community in my virtual classroom. During my student teaching experience, I examined how students responded to these activities and how the activities worked together to unify my class. This study will benefit educators by giving them a variety of methods for creating an online classroom community.