Belongingness In Classroom

Belonging means different things to different people. The most common definition is feeling a sense of connectedness to a person, place or thing. Understanding nourishes belonging while a lack of understanding can prevent people from belonging. This is shown through Peter Skrzynecki’s poem ‘Migrant hostel’ which is about the challenges faced by travelers on their journey, and the hardships they have to overcome by exchanging their old world for the unfamiliar and unwelcoming new world in which they don’t understand anything. Skrzynecki’s poem ‘Feliks Skryznecki’ explores a relationship between father and son, and their contrasting experiences of belonging to a new place. The related text, ‘The Red Tree,’ by Shaun Tan also shows that a lack

A fundamental part of human existence and interaction is the notion of belonging or identifying with a group. Groups form and exist for various reasons and purposes, comprising of individuals similar or diverse in nature, that often work together toward a common goal (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014). In 1902, the American sociologist by the name of C. H. Cooley, made distinction between primary and secondary groups. Cooley (1902) classified primary group to have intimate and comparatively permanent associations as one might find in a cohort of close friends, or a family. The groups or associations in which individuals related to each other through formal and often legalistic rules, were classified as secondary groups (Nolen, 2010).

It is a well-known fact that belonging to a group can make an individual feel not only accepted, but more powerful that if they were on their own. Whether it is a community, youth group or even religion, belonging is an everyday occurrence of like that many of us do not even realise. Belonging to a group is more influential than belonging to an individual. We can see this in the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller, 1984 by George Orwell and the listening task. Belonging to a group can give you a feeling of acceptance, but also can help you not to be targeted or marginalised. Also, people who appear to belong to groups, when looked at closer, in truth do not belong. Belonging to a group can also give you more power as a

Explore how this is evident in you prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing.

Give back to the school beyond the classroom. The school is a community, just like the classroom should be. One of the best ways to make that community more beneficial to all its members is to give back. Outstanding teachers know this and put it into practice, whether it is coaching a sport, volunteering with PTO activities, serving on a committee, or supporting other teachers.

Concept, perceptions and ideas to belong or not to belong differ from person to person. This is due to experiences that shape ones personality that come through personal, cultural, social and historical context. The idea of belonging allows one to have some sort of connection and communal with people, places, groups, communities and the wider world. In contrast not belonging causes one to suffer from alienation, exclusion and marginalisation. As a result these factors can cause an individual to be at different states of depression depending on one’s personality and situation. However in society, belonging has become and essential to life. Many texts have explored the notion of belonging and not belonging; the play Rainbows

“We belong … like fish in water. We’re in our environment.” This quote from the New York Times shows the perception of belonging as the idea about connecting to a place, person, group or a community. 'Feliks Skrzynecki' by Peter Skrzynecki, 'I'm nobody! Who are you?' by Emily Dickinson and 'The Rabbits' by John Marsden & Shaun Tan show the concept of belonging as being contrasted towards the New York Times quote, showing the alienation and non-existent connection towards it. These texts have furthered my understanding on the perceptions of belonging by recognising the different concepts of connection to people, places and things.

It is often said that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. As true as that is you can still try to make the water look as delicious and rewarding to drink form as possible so the horse will actually want to drink it. Same thing with students, as principle I would make working hard, getting good grades, maintaining good behavior and staying on task look as rewarding as possible. This motivates the students to be and do better, ultimately leading to self-motivation which is what every person should have within themselves to be successful and determined. As principle I would come up with more original fun things like trips, activities and rewards to motivate the students to want to do more. Simple things like that mean a lot to students and make going to school more fun and rewarding. I would make ways to recognize the achievements of student who are doing well so as they feel recognized they want to keep up their good works. Things like PBIS bucks were a great idea but were never enforced and was simply empty motivation that we couldn’t do anything with, I would change that

The concept of belonging deals with not only acceptance but also with dejection and alienation. This concept can influence our belonging to a relationship or place by our background and culture. These ideas are explored through Shakespeare’s play “As You Like IT”, the poem “Villane on a Theme” by George Good and the film “Remember the Titans” directed by Boaz Yakin. By analysing the texts in relation to belonging we see a variety of perceptions to belonging in the means of relationships, family and place. The different contexts in which each text is written explore slightly different ideas that together broaden our understanding on the complexity that is belonging.109

The authors explore the "Belonging Hypothesis" as proposed by Baumeister and Leary (2009) who based it on the idea that humans were made with "the need to belong" after their extensive review. The authors split the hypothesis into 3 parts as follows -- 1. The larger a person's "need to belong" is, t he larger the effect of homesickness. ; 2. By the substitution hypothesis, the more close friendships made in a new place, the smaller the effect of homesickness. ; 3. Feeling more adapted to a new location will decrease the effects of homesickness and the need to sustain existing relationships. The authors carry out 2 studies to help support the "Belonging Hypothesis", one correlation based and the other experimental based. The correlational

In order to create a positive classroom culture, teacher need to promote positive relationships between students and with students by taking an interest and have respect for each other. It is extremely important for teacher to get to know the students, their families, and their culture. When a student knows their teacher cares about them, then a relationship of trust will exist between a student and teacher. According to Sayeski and Brown (2011), “teachers who had positive relationships with their student had 31 % fewer discipline problems and rule violations over the course of the year than teachers who did not” (p. 12). In order to know more about them, I will send home a poster board where the students can fill it with any information they would like me and their classmates to know. This constructivist approach gives them the opportunity to be creative and choose what they want to share. The essentialist approach of sending home a questionnaire for the family to fill out will help collect information important to understanding the student. This is the only category where I consider myself an essentialist and constructivist due to how information will be gathered about my students, but this will allow me to build the framework for a positive learning environment for everyone. Having students create a poster will allow their peers to get to know them as an individual. Another way to create a positive environment is having students work together to keep

The need to belong in an integral part of the human psyche. All people, on some level, desire to feel a sense of belonging that will emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. Belonging cannot be achieved without an understanding of oneself and their surroundings.

Relationships and belonging offer many benefits in life. Without feeling a sense of belonging, it is hard to have joy and feel a meaning and purpose in life. Relationships force people to learn how to communicate and work together. Through relationships, people can learn a lot about themselves. God gave Adam, Eve, so he would have a companion and feel a sense of belonging. God wants his people to have relationships so that they can get to know him more, through others. If people do not have a personal connection with God, they will not be able to live a full life like he intended. The need to belong boils down to the need for a Savior, Jesus Christ. Without this bond, all relationships will lack that sense of meaning.

For many students and teachers schools can be ostracizing places. Schools can contain social hierarchies which can marginalise people to the point where they can drop out of school all together. These places are not conducive to an education environment which leads creating well rounded, empathetic and supportive setting in which students can flourish. To counteract this commonplace theme in schools a culture of belonging can be created. To me a culture of belonging is when an education environment has been created that contains encouragement, a sense of fitting to a group, and where people feel comfortable as themselves. A culture of belonging is hard to establish in environments which contain elements which hinder or restrict its growth. It is not easy to instil when the opposite is apparent in the school.

* Try to create a sense of community where the students feel more comfortable in front of each other. One suggestion made was to have the students sit in a circle.