Have you considered implementing morning meetings in your school or class? You should.
Schools benefit from this practice in many ways. The quick, 20-minute sessions strengthen the teacher-student connection; reduce bullying, absences, and behavior incidents; and improve school culture.
Here are the four key components of morning meetings and ways meetings reinforce social and emotional learning (SEL) concepts.
Responsive Classroom, a popular teaching framework that improves school culture through evidence-based practices, created morning meetings. Just like the name suggests, morning meetings take place at the start of the school day. Teachers allocate the first 20 minutes of class for constructive conversations and preparing students for the day ahead. During this time, students aren’t just “shooting the breeze.” They’re actually building and practicing many important skills that are needed for academic success.
There are four basic components to morning meetings:
Morning meetings:
The key to successful morning meetings is consistency. Morning meetings must become a normal and expected part of the school day for maximum effectiveness. It may take some time to find a rhythm, but once it’s established, you should see fewer behavior issues, stronger connections with and between students, and ready-to-learn students.
Morning meetings are much more than just “free” or social time. Spending 20 minutes at the start of the school day to help students talk through issues they may be having and practice social and emotional skills can have positive effects on their academic achievement.