My #1 Tip for Creating a Strong Classroom Community and Culture

Hey there, friend, and welcome to another episode of the Stellar Teacher Podcast. I’m your host, Sara Marye. And I am so excited you are joining me today.

I cannot believe that we are already in the middle of August and it is like full on back to school for many of you. I know there are a lot of teachers who are starting this week, or are going back with teacher in service. I know we have some teachers who still have a few weeks yet, but wherever you are in your back to school slash summer schedule, I hope that you are just getting excited for another year.

I always like to remind teachers that the beginning of every school year means that this just has the potential and the capacity to possibly be your best year ever. And so it doesn’t matter what happened last year or the last couple of years, this is a fresh start. And if you’ve been nervous or worried just go into it thinking that this could be and there’s no reason why it couldn’t be. But this could be your best year of teaching ever. And today, we’re actually going to talk about something that I think will help you make it your best year of teaching ever.

But before we jump into our content, I did want to let you know that we are going to be offering our special workshop, the Time-Crunch Cure, which is all about how to create a literacy block that fits it all in this coming Sunday and Monday. So Sunday, August 20, at 5pm. And then Monday, August 21, at 7:30pm.

And this is the workshop we did over the summer, back in July, we had our pop up Facebook group going for that. And we had so many teachers that said they missed it, they were on vacation, they were not able to attend, but they really would like to have that information going into the school year. And so we wanted to offer a secondary round of the workshop.

So we’re gonna be doing the workshop two different times, you can sign up for it at stellarteacher.com/workshop. If you’ve joined us in July and want a refresher, you’re more than welcome to come back. If you were not able to come to it in July and you really want to start the year with systems and routines and mindset and tools that really will help you create a literacy block that fits it all in and covers your standards and does things well and it doesn’t require you to work nights and weekends.

And all of those things that definitely come to the workshop because it was really, really helpful for the teachers who attended over the summer. So hope to see you there.

Now let’s jump into today’s episode. So today, I am not talking about anything related to literacy at all, which I know is what we usually talk about. However, what we are going to talk about today might be just as important as all of the literacy concepts. In fact, maybe even more.

And I want to share with you my number one tip for creating a strong classroom community and culture. And here’s the thing that I think is important for teachers to think about, you know, it’s like you could have the best literacy lesson plans ever. But if you do not have a strong classroom culture, and community, then your lessons are only going to go so far or have as big of an impact.

It’s kind of like the same thing with classroom management. Like if we don’t have good classroom management in place, our lessons won’t be as effective. But the same is true for classroom culture and community. And we want our students to feel like they belong. We want our students to have, you know, meaningful relationships with us as their teacher and with their classmates. We want it really to feel like a family, we want our students to want to be there.

And there is really one thing that you can do to help create a strong classroom community. And that is to create a list of three to five core values for you and your students to prioritize and focus on during the year. So this is the tip. And then of course, I’m going to explain to you what that actually is and how you can practically do that.

Now this idea of creating core values and sharing them with your students is something that I shared with the teachers inside of the Stellar Literacy Collective, which is our membership site for third, fourth and fifth grade teachers. And this is something that we talked about during our kickoff call. And when I shared this idea of core values, so many of the teachers they said they love this idea. This is something that they wanted to do with their students this next year and it really got them excited.

And so of course, I wanted to share it with you as well. And I was like, this would be a great podcast episode, it’d be great for back to school. And so we’re going to talk all about how to create these core values and how you can make them the focus of your classroom.

So maybe you’re wondering, okay, well, what is a core value? When you say, create a list of three to five core value, what exactly am I creating? A core value is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a value that is core or central to your identity. And really, it’s a core belief, a core principle, and it is something that is going to help drive behavior and influence actions, and it’s going to help us make decisions.

And when I say this, us, it’s really us as a classroom community. You know, things like honesty, empathy, kindness, compassion, hard work, teamwork, those could all be core values, but there isn’t, you know, there isn’t a limit to what the core values could be. And they don’t necessarily have to be single words.

On my team, so I have a small team of people that work with me behind the scenes of the Stellar Teacher Company. And I have a set of core values that my team and I use to operate. And these core values are something that we discuss each week during our team meeting. And they are things that help drive and influence our behaviors. And they’re really things that help you know, influence and form our identity as a team.

And there are things that we keep in mind when we are you know, doing things like when we create resources, or even when I put together a podcast episode, I think about our core values, and our my podcast episode topics, in alignment with the things that we say we value. And the core values really describe who we are and who we’re striving to be. And so our core values at the stellar teacher team are to provide excellence, give joy, evolve and adapt, take action, and work together.

And I wanted to share those with you because those core values are a little bit different than the ones that I shared with you, when I just listed off those examples. You know, kindness, compassion, hard work. And I want you to understand that core values don’t have to just be single words, you know, they can be phrases as well.

And they don’t necessarily have to all be character traits, like I previously mentioned. So I want you to kind of see that, you know, core values can be really anything, any words or phrases or ideas that are going to have a significant impact on you and your students.

And ultimately, when you create this list of three to five core values, these are going to be the things that you say, these are the things that are most important to me and my students this year, and we are going to prioritize working on becoming these things.

And core values are a little bit different than classroom rules and essential agreements, which I know when I first started teaching, we had a list of classroom rules. And usually I made up some rules, but I wanted to include my students. And so they would help me come up with some rules as well. And then at some point, I stopped calling them classroom rules. And I started calling them essential agreements. But they were, you know, in essence, the same thing.

And so some examples of classroom rules might be, you know, no running in the hallway, be prepared for class, be quiet when a classmate is talking, you know, when we’re sitting on the carpet, we’re gonna keep our hands and feet to ourselves. And you can still have classroom rules. And you can have those in addition to core values.

But rules are very different than core values. You know, classroom rules, or even essential agreements are usually a really specific set of behaviors that you want your students to follow. And they’re usually pretty black and white. You know, if we say no running in the hallway, you can say like, yes, you were running.

Or No, you weren’t running or like, if we’re telling our students that they need to be quiet when a classmate is talking, that’s pretty black and white, you know, we can say, Okay, you weren’t, you weren’t quiet, you’re not following one of our rules, you know, your students either are following them, or they aren’t.

But a core value, on the other hand, is going to define and shape your classroom culture. And ultimately, it’s going to influence and help create the identity of your students. A rule is something that your students are going to follow. But a core value is something that they are, it’s something that they’re going to work on becoming, which is much more significant than just having a list of rules to follow.

So let’s say that empathy is one of your core values. So this means that throughout the year, you and your students are going to focus and you’re going to work on being more empathetic. You know, there’s no specific end goal that they’re striving for where it’s like, Okay, I’m going to reach my empathy goal by September, and then I’m done working on it, because the reality of it is, you can always become more empathetic.

It’s something that applies to all students, regardless of their starting point. You know, regardless of how much empathy they bring to the classroom, they can always work on becoming more empathetic in more situations, and it’s something that they can work on in all subjects and all parts of the school day and even at home.

And so core values are really going to help your students build strong character. And ultimately, it’s going to help them learn how to be a good person, which is very different than just having a list of classroom rules. So like I said, you can still have your rules or essential agreements, but you also want to have core values.

So maybe you’re starting to think, okay, yeah, this sounds like a good idea, like, how do I get started. So when you’re coming up with core values, I would encourage you to have somewhere between three to five. You know, if you only have maybe one or two, then it’s hard to have something that is all encompassing.

You know, if you remember, the five that I listed that me and my team have, you know, provide excellence is very different than evolving and adapting. And if we only had one core value, we’d be missing out on some really key beliefs and behaviors and identity, you know, aspects of our identity that are important to us. So usually three is a good number and up to five, you know, if you have more than five, then it’s going to become too many to remember. And they’re going to start to become watered down.

Because ultimately, you want your students to be able to say, these are our core values as a class, you want them to be able to remember them and really understand what they mean. So plan on coming up with three to five.

Now, I think it is always a good idea to include students in anything that is going to become a substantial part of your classroom community. And so if you like the idea of involving your students in coming up with some of your core values, you could but I also think you know, you as the teacher, you have much more insight and perspective and life understanding to where you probably know, okay, actually, I already have an idea of the core values that I think are going to be important.

So you can come up with them on your own before the year begins. And that is completely fine. Or maybe you do a combination, maybe you come up with three, and you let your class come up with two. However you do it, you want to come up with three to five very specific core values, you’re going to want to write them down.

And there’s a little exercise that you could do, if you’re you know, sort of stuck, or you’re not really sure what you want your core values to be. I know when I was coming up with the core values for my team, I was thinking, Okay, this is kind of a big deal like this is going to help really shape and influence the culture of my team. And so I don’t want to just come up with the first five ideas that come to mind, like I want to be intentional about this.

So one thing that you could do to become really intentional about coming up with core values is to take 20 minutes, set aside some time to reflect, grab a piece of paper and a pencil or, you know, pull up a new note section on your phone. And just start by doing a brain dump. You know, right down to any behavior, any action, any result, any belief, any mindset shift, anything that you want your students to have this next year, any sort of goal when it comes to classroom community, or culture.

And you can really think about, you know, when you think about your classroom community for this year, what are things that you want to see your students doing, or what are things that you want to hear them saying, and go ahead and write all of your ideas down on paper. And anytime you’re doing a brain dump, there’s no wrong thing. So just get your get your brain flow and write everything down.

And then once you have everything written down, start to see if you can group any of your ideas together, you know, so maybe get out a highlighter, and highlight similar ideas, the same color. And start to see if you can identify groups of words or phrases that you could put together and encompass with a single word or phrase so that way your core value is representing all of these things that you want to see in your classroom.

So for example, when I was coming up with the core values for my team, there’s a few things that I wrote down. And it was things like, you know, I want the people on my team to be positive, I want them to be cheerful, I want them to be encouraging, you know, we want to create resources and content that are going to make teachers smile. So hopefully, after a teacher listens to our podcast episodes, they are feeling encouraged. And they you know, they’re smiling and saying, Okay, I feel better after listening to that episode.

You know, we want students that after they use our resources, they smile, and they feel confident. You know, when we put together events, or our Facebook community, we want it to be hospitable and welcoming. And when I thought about all of these things that I listed down that I wanted for my team, and this community of teachers, the phrase that kept coming to mind for me was to give joy, ultimately, me and my team, one of our goals is to give joy.

So for me when we talk about the value of giving joy, it means all of those things. But rather than having us to remember Okay, cheerful and encouraging positive, you know, making people smile, hospitable, all of that stuff, we’re just like, nope, our goal is to give joy.

So if you can start to notice commonalities or similarities in the ideas you wrote down, then you can group them together. And then you can come up with the three to five core values that you notice are really going to cover these things that you want for your students this next year.

So then, once you have your three to five core values, you can either do this next part on your own before the school year begins, or before you introduce them to your students or you can also have your students be involved in this. But ultimately, you’re going to want to come up with your personal definition, or explanation of what each core value means to you.

You know, for example, someone else with a different team might define giving joy as something differently than I do. But for me and my team, we have a very specific definition of what that looks like.

And let me give you another example. So another one of our core values is to evolve and adapt. And we have a very specific definition of what that means to us. And for us, that means that we are constantly learning and growing, we are finding ways to improve ourselves and our company.

We don’t view mistakes as failures, but rather as opportunities to learn a lesson and refine our practice for the future. If we’re going to be evolving and adapting, that means we’re going to ask questions, we’re going to seek out feedback. And we’re going to look for ways that we can better serve the teachers in our community.

That’s what it means to us to evolve and adapt. Someone else might have a different definition. And that’s completely fine. Because my core values don’t have to work for anybody else, they just have to work for me and my team, just like your core values, don’t have to have a textbook definition. And they can mean something completely different. But the definition is going to help you and your students understand how that core value is going to drive your actions and influence your behaviors and really shape your classroom community.

So once you have your three to five values, then it’s also important that you define them. So your students have a very specific understanding of what that looks like. So you could do that ahead of time. Or you can involve your students with that.

So you know, if you’re going to have something like empathy, you can give a general definition of what empathy looks like, and then ask your class, okay, if we’re gonna focus on being empathetic this year, what does that look like for us? You know, how are we going to operate in order to be empathetic?

And then once you have your core values and the definition in place, then you get to let them work. And you get to let them do their magic. And you have to obviously put a little effort into it. But you want to just let the core values be a constant part of your classroom discussion. You want your students to understand that at the beginning of the year, when you introduce them, these are things that you’re going to work on and that you’re going to focus on. But it does not take a ton of effort to really let them have a big impact on your classroom community.

So a few things that you could do to really focus on core values and let them impact the culture of your classroom is, first of all, introduce them to your students. So this could be as simple as making a poster, you could let your students help make the poster but you want to introduce your core values, and the definition of them and let your students know that as a class this year, these are things that are important to us.

And it’s important that you start to use this language of we are going to be empathetic, we are going to be kindness, we are going to evolve and adapt whatever that it is these are not individual goals. These are class goals, because as a community, we are working together. So like I said, have a classroom poster displayed somewhere where it’s visible.

But you also want to make sure that you’re discussing them weekly, if not even daily. So you could have, you know, a morning meeting once a week where you just review your core values and what it means. But you could also let your students do a shout out, this could be done every morning or even afternoon. And let students point out other students in the class who did a really good job of exemplifying that core value.

So you know, at recess today, I saw so and so was showing extreme kindness because they were doing this. Or today in PE, I saw someone doing a really good job of the core value of teamwork, because they were doing whatever, but you want students to be able to name the core value, and then identify the behavior that they saw another classmate doing. And that’s gonna reinforce this idea that as a class, these values are important to us.

But you could also share read alouds, where the characters are exemplifying your core values, or even just be aware of the characters that you’re reading about. You don’t have to necessarily look for specific books, but look for examples in the books that you read, have characters who are showing your core value.

But then also look for non examples, you know, are you reading a book where somebody is not being kind or not being empathetic? And what is the impact of that? How does that impact their community?

And I think core values really start to show their power when you’re having one on one behavior discussions with your students, or if you’re having to provide individual or even classroom consequences, because the reality of it is, is even with core values, you’re going to have some students who are going to misbehave this next year, they’re not going to be perfect.

But when you have a core value, it helps you realign your behavior expectations but it also helps your students realign their actual behavior with what is expected of the class. So rather than having to discuss behavior issues, on an individual level, you can view behavior issues through the lens of the class with a core value you know.

So rather telling the student you know, you were being unkind or you weren’t doing this or you are breaking the rules, you know, that really singles the student out. Instead, you can flip it around and you can say you know, as a class we value extreme kindness. This is one of our core values, this is something that we’re working on. And at recess today, I noticed, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever it is, and was the way that you were treating so and so at recess, an example of showing extreme kindness, you know, is that a way that we operate as a class?

And when you flip it from, as a class, this is how we behave, this is how we operate and was the behavior you were doing today, an example of that, it sort of removes this, you did something wrong, and you’re in trouble. And it’s rather giving them a strong sense of belonging and like, know, you’re important, you’re an important part of this community. But in order for you to stay a part of this community and be in this classroom, you have to make sure that you are operating with the things that we believe.

So it really creates this sense of we are a community, and this is how we behave, you are a part of the we. So we need you to step up and start showing, you know, whatever the core value is, so it can really have a lot of power when it comes to addressing behavioral issues.

So let the core values be the thing that really influence and define your classroom identity. And I promise they are a fun thing to put in place with your students, it opens the door for so many great classroom discussions. And especially once you start to let your students take ownership of it, and talk about it and identify it, you’ll be amazed at just the impact that it can have.

So that’s it for you. My number one tip for creating a strong classroom culture and community is to create three to five core values for your students, define what that means for you and your students, and then be really intentional about bringing up those core values on a regular basis with your students so they can constantly work on embracing them.

Now, I would love to know if you plan on using core values with your students. And I would love to know what they are. I think it’s so fun to hear what different teachers focus on. And like I said earlier, there’s no right or wrong way it ultimately comes down to what do you want for your students this next year, what is going to be important and significant for you.

But I would love to hear about them. So feel free to send me an Instagram message over at the stellar teacher company. And let me know that you listened to today’s episode. And then like I said, share some of your core values with me, because I would love to hear them and learn how I can cheer you on this next year.

I hope that you are having a stellar week as you get excited for another wonderful year with your students. Don’t forget, if you missed our Time-Crunch Cure workshop and want to attend our replay of it, we’re gonna be doing two live sessions this next weekend. You can sign up at stellarteacher.com/workshop. We will also put the link in the show notes.

And I am just so excited for the school year. And like I said, I hope that it is your best year ever and we are excited to support and cheer you on in any way that we can. And I will see you back here next Monday.