We all want the kind of classroom environment where students feel safe and motivated to learn, where teachers feel they have the optimal conditions for sharing knowledge and helping students develop new skills. How do we create this kind of classroom? What specific techniques do we use to motivate positive contributions to the classroom? How do we manage unruly behaviour?

The 2014-15 Provost’s Teaching Fellows (Kim Hellemans, Wayne Horn and Vincent Kazmierski) kick off the Welcome to My Classroom series by sharing what they do and facilitating a discussion about what it means to create a positive learning environment.