TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: Creating Classroom Community

In 33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and All Students, Lisa Nunn demonstrates how a sense of belonging reduces dropout risk, increases engagement, and fosters deeper learning, which can be cultivated by instructors through small consistent actions. She emphasizes that one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to build a strong classroom community and sense of belonging is to learn students’ names and use them regularly. Names carry deep personal significance, and when instructors use them, students feel seen and valued. This contributes to a classroom culture where students feel like individuals rather than anonymous members of a crowd, which can reduce anxiety and increase participation.

Here's one way to do it: Name Tent Activity (Weeks 1 & 2)

• First class meeting: Give each student a folded index card to create a name tent. Ask them to write their preferred name (and pronouns if they’d like) in large letters, decorated in any way they choose.
• Community-building element: Each day for the first few weeks, ask students to set their name tents on their desks. As you circulate, greet students by name. Encourage peers to do the same when they engage in group discussions.
• Follow-up: Once you’ve learned everyone’s name, surprise the class by greeting each student as they walk in one day. This reinforces the sense that they belong and that the classroom is a space where their presence matters.

This week, we challenge you to try something new to create a strong sense of community in your class.  

Additional ideas: Mini Toolkit: Building Positive Classroom Community

1. Share Your Humanity: Students connect more when they see professors as approachable humans with their own struggles. Practice: Tell a short story about a learning challenge you faced. Have students write one challenge they expect in class, then share with a partner.
2. Encourage Peer-to-Peer Connections: Peer familiarity increases comfort and participation in class. Practice: Try a “Find Someone Who…” Bingo activity with prompts like: ‘Find someone who commutes’ or ‘Find someone who likes the same show as you.’
3. Validate Struggles as Normal: Normalizing challenge reduces isolation and helps students persist. Practice: After a tough assignment, collect anonymous feedback on what was hardest. Share results and reassure students these bumps are expected.
4. Normalize Help-Seeking: Clarify that office hours are for support, not emergencies. Practice: Assign a scavenger hunt where students must attend office hours once just to introduce themselves or ask a casual question.
5. Collective Wins and Celebrations: Celebrating group effort fosters shared purpose and motivation. Practice: After the first quiz or paper, celebrate effort. Have students share one thing they learned while preparing

Resources for creating classroom community: 

• Visit our Faculty Development DRT pages on Inclusive Teaching, Building Classroom Community, and Engagement
• Nunn, Lisa. (2019) 33 Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation students (ebook from our library) (summary)
• Nunn, Lisa. (2021) How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life 

DID YOU DO IT?

Let us know how it went. We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey. The survey is anonymous, but if you choose to enter your name, you’ll be entered in a drawing at the end of the quarter to win a new book from Faculty Development!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS (CAFEs, workshops, etc. Add what you can and we’ll fill in when possible)

• Sept. 30th, 2025 Noon - 1 p.m.: CAFE: Making Service Meaningful
• Oct. 16th, 2025 Noon - 1 p.m.: CAFE: AI & Academic Integrity

WANT TO READ A LITTLE MORE?

• Tanner, 2013: Structure Matters: Twenty-One Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity
• Penner, 2018: Building an Inclusive Classroom
• Condis, 2018: How to convince students to attend office hours 
• Garrett-Ostermiller, 2018: Welcoming and Supporting Students During Office Hours
• Nunn, L. (2019) 33 Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation students (ebook from our library) (summary)
• Orr, 2020: 5 Ideas for Virtual Office Hours

 

This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Cara Chiaraluce on behalf of the Faculty Development and the Center for Teaching Excellence.

Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here. 

And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development events.