Student Contributor: A LaFrance
Tribes community is a preventative tool to create a sense of belonging in the classroom for the students. Through the development of respect responsibility etc., you can build a positive environment in your classroom.
This tool is built upon four different agreements that both you as the teacher and the students agree upon. They are as follows; Attentive listening, Appreciation, Right to pass and participate, mutual respect. In order to have these agreements, you as the teacher must create a warm environment within the classroom. It is extremely important to remember the key here is time. If you want a successful tribe classroom community, you must begin at the very beginning of the year, and allow the process time. Everyone must have a common purpose in the classroom (ex; know and trust each other), for the tribes community to work. As long as you put in the time and effort to create a relationship with each student and build mutual respect, then tribes community will be an excellent preventative strategy. The students will feel a sense of belonging and therefore will be less likely to lash out.
This tool best relates to student directed influence, but can also translate to collaborative influence as well. It is the students putting in the effort to build this community. If they choose not to participate, then the community will not form. Tribes community is run by the students for the betterment of the students, facilitated by the teacher. In terms of collaboration, tribes community fits very well because this is a chance for both you and the students to create relationships and build trust. By working together, you create a classroom filled with belonging. The only teacher directed influence is in the beginning when you set up the platform for this idea. Tribes community works if you continuously build trust by allowing the students more freedom in choices, and work towards being a student centered classroom. You could argue that tribes community could be placed in the supportive phase too considering a community is a sense of support, reducing misbehavior. However I chose the preventative phase because tribes community has to be set up so early in advanced, and is put in place to create the support that goes into the supportive phase. Without a sense of community, there isn't a supportive phase.
More Information –
Tool Source: Ron Patrick
