Classroom Culture: It's All About Relationships

As we begin a new school year, many of us are thinking about the expectations we want to set in our classrooms.  We want our students to feel inspired in our classes.  We want them to be open-mined, caring, curious, risk-takers, and inquirers.  We want them to develop the thinking skills of a lifelong learner.  While feeling excited at the dawn of a new year, many of us also feel a mixture of anxiety, doubt, and trepidation.  We have these seemingly lofty dreams for our students.  How can we possibly make them all a reality—especially among the numerous other responsibilities we juggle?Well, I'm certainly not going to belittle all that it takes to create a strong classroom culture of joy and respect.  It takes dedication, passion, and genuine love.  But, I do think we can help ourselves remove the anxiety by zooming in on the root of our "lofty" dreams.  Rather than feel overwhelmed, we can pare it all down to one key concept:It's all about relationships.Are learners disengaged?  Work to form stronger relationships.  Are they off-task, possibly even misbehaving?  Work to form stronger relationships.  Are they itching to leave your classroom?  Work to form stronger relationships.  Are they reluctant to share their thinking, even one-on-one?  Work to form stronger relationships.Some equate classroom management with control.  Teaching and leading is not about being in control.  It's about empowering—which means you create an environment where students can cultivate their own autonomy, agency, and self-control.  We all want our students to develop skills for deep thinking and living a life filled with growth and learning.  In order for this to happen, we have to give them opportunities to try new things, take risks, get a little messy, and learn from it all.  That cannot happen in a vacuum of control, but it can flourish in an environment filled with trust and agency.The concepts of both classroom management and setting expectations are really about creating a classroom culture. Not a you culture—a classroom culture.  As you begin a new year, discuss with your students: What are our principles? What are our nonnegotiables? What are our hopes and dreams for this year?  What do we expect from ourselves?  What do we expect from each other?  You don't mandate these things; you build them together.  Through these discussions, you not only build expectations—you also build dialogue, which builds trust.  And trust opens the door to building true relationships.And it's all about relationships.Not only do you develop these expectations with your students, but it is essential that you model them.  What you do speaks volumes to the learners in your room.  Do you treat them with respect?  Do you actively listen when they are speaking?  Do you make eye contact?  Do you honor their opinions, even if they differ from your own?  If we want students to treat each other this way, we need to do the same.Always remember that kids are people, too.  Showing students respect means you see them as the unique, incredible human beings they are, and you treat them as such.  Through showing genuine respect, trust is developed and relationships are formed.And it's all about relationships.