“Don’t smile til December!” Have you heard that one before? For your students’ sake, I hope not. I, however, definitely heard that “advice” when I first started teaching. I guess I almost understand the concept: Don’t be too friendly too early on or your students will take advantage of you. While there is something to be said for not letting your students take advantage of you or your kindness in the classroom, that isn’t the only way to do it. You can smile on the first day of school, I’ve done it many times and I can assure you, it doesn’t mean the end for your classroom management.
Instead of simply projecting a harsh facade, you can set the tone you want for your classroom by intentionally creating a classroom culture and prioritizing your relationships with students—and smiling while you do it.
Creating Your Classroom Culture
What do you want your students to feel when they walk into your classroom? What does a positive, welcoming, and efficient classroom look like to you? These are questions you can ask yourself and your students to begin establishing what you want your classroom culture to be.
Your classroom culture is how students interact with content, with you, and with one another. It also includes how you address concerns, how your students resolve conflict, and what happens when students aren’t meeting expectations. As you start the school year and get to know your students, you can work together to determine what you value as a community and create policies and classroom procedures that align with those values.
This process is incredibly individualized based on a teacher’s style, personality, life experience, and unique students. But, regardless of those differences, all classroom cultures should incorporate student and teacher values, and emphasize the importance of working hard, working together, and learning from mistakes. By employing a values-driven approach to classroom policies and classroom culture, you can establish a functional, supportive, and efficient classroom without simply relying on being strict—and hiding your joy for teaching.
Prioritizing People
As the school year goes on, you not only get to know your students better, but they get the opportunity to know you. If you hold onto the “advice” of not smiling in front of your students, you run the risk of alienating them, and creating a situation where they don’t really get to know or trust you. Instead, you can prioritize learning about your students as people, and helping them see you in the same way.
While there are many things about yourself you may not want to share with students, it is important to show them your human side. Show them how to make mistakes and learn from them, show them how to use feedback to improve, and show them how much fun it can be to learn something new. And, when there are things you want to share with students, do it! Whether it's your love of animals, cooking, or the latest book you’ve read, sharing these small windows into your personality can help build deeper relationships with students and create lasting connections that support emotional and academic growth.
You can also create opportunities for students to create relationships with their peers, allowing them to get invested in the success of the class as a whole. As students learn to rely on and feel comfortable speaking up in front of one another, they can more confidently take academic risks and engage in more complex discourse. By prioritizing the relationships in the room, you can create a classroom culture that empowers every student to use their voice and ensures every student feels connected to the classroom community, all with a smile on your face.
Want more strategies to make your classroom a space you and your students will love? Look no further than the Fishtank Blog! Dive into two of our most popular back to school posts on building relationships with students’ families and establishing strong classroom policies.
Rachel Fuhrman is the Curriculum Marketing Manager at Fishtank Learning. Before joining Fishtank Learning, Rachel spent 5 years as a Middle School Special Education Teacher in New Orleans, LA and Harlem, NY. Outside of the classroom, she has been a frequent contributor to multiple education blogs and focuses primarily on student engagement and instructional practice topics. Rachel earned both her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and her Master of Science in Educational Studies from The Johns Hopkins University.