Creating a Vibrant Classroom Culture

As we return to our classrooms, there is energy, enthusiasm, and excitement in both teachers and students. It is not by accident that some classrooms seem to come together almost immediately - with students who are ready to learn and following the teacher's expectations from the first day of school. These classrooms, and these teachers, are not magical and they do not simply have better behaved students. On the contrary, these classrooms are purposefully built on clear expectations, practiced routines, and explicit procedures.


The time and effort that it takes to purposefully build a classroom community that will succeed in both academic and social emotional learning is well worth it. It is an investment early on that will result in increased self-management on the part of the students and more effective teaching for the teacher.

Here are some tips to creating a strong classroom culture with clear expectations:

• Know your students. Greet them at the door. Provide opportunities for them to share and develop trust with you and with one another. Morning Meeting can be a great tool for this.
• Start as you intend to go on. Build your classroom culture based on the picture that you see of how your classroom will function in May. Plan backwards to break apart skills that will be necessary to teach explicitly at the beginning.
• Maintain high expectations. Provide opportunities to rehearse skills and practice procedures. When students require additional practice in order to meet your expectations - stop, provide supportive feedback, and encouragement when they make improvements.
• Explicitly teach routines and procedures that will support the culture of learning in your classroom. How do you expect students to sharpen pencils? To get just right for me books? To get materials out of their cubbies? If you do not teach it, students cannot master it. 
• Celebrate achievement. Take every opportunity to celebrate early wins and daily accomplishments. You will get much mileage out of positively reinforcing both individual students and classroom behaviors and academic accomplishments.