How to Create a Positive Classroom Culture 

One of the most important goals for a teacher is to create a classroom environment where students feel comfortable, supported, and ready to learn. This is because the tone of a classroom can have a significant impact on student success. In this post, I’m sharing tips for creating a positive classroom culture, including a free tool to make that task a little bit easier!

4 Tips for Creating a Positive Classroom Culture

While there are many different things that contribute to the overall tone of the classroom, there are four things that make the biggest impact. Prioritizing these four things can go a long way in creating a positive culture in your classroom.

1. Focus on Relationships

One of the most important parts of building a positive classroom culture is to build strong relationships with your students. It’s also important for your students to connect with their peers in positive ways. This will help you create a classroom culture where all students feel welcome and valued.

It’s also important to build positive relationships with the parents of your students. If you have ever had a student whose parents had negative feelings about the school, you know that those attitudes tend to creep into the classroom through the student. This can have a very negative impact on your classroom culture. Focusing on building positive relationships from the start can help to prevent this from happening!

2. Have Consistent Routines & Clear Expectations

When students know what is expected of them throughout the daily routine, they are more likely to demonstrate that behavior. A classroom without clear routines and expectations can easily become a chaotic environment, which can have a very negative impact on your classroom culture. On the other hand, if you set clear expectations for behavior in your class, your classroom will be a much more positive place for your students to learn. 

The way that you communicate these expectations can also set the tone for your classroom. For example, you could display your classroom rules as positive statements rather than a list of don’ts. 

3. Hold Students Accountable

However, it’s not enough to just set positive expectations. A classroom with a positive culture is a place where students are held accountable for their behavior. It can become disheartening for students when their peers frequently disrupt the classroom and are clearly not held accountable for that behavior. This is when students might start trying to police each other, which can drag down the entire culture of the classroom.

4. Provide Positive Feedback

Finally, holding students accountable for behavior doesn’t mean that you need to be in corrective mode all day long. That won’t create a positive classroom culture! Instead, be sure to provide positive feedback to your students as often as possible. Look for ways to catch your students being good! 

If your class has trouble with a certain behavior, you can use positive reinforcement to encourage your students to improve this behavior.  For example, if your class is way too chatty on the way to lunch, create a class goal to have Level 0 voices in the hallway. Then you can reward your class each time you catch a student demonstrating that target behavior.

How Glow and Grow Notes Can Help 

Building a positive classroom culture doesn’t have to be complicated! In fact, a simple behavior note can go a long way in helping you build relationships, create routines, hold students accountable, and provide positive feedback. 

Relationships – A glow note is a wonderful way to build a relationship with your students and their families. As a parent, all we want to know is that our kid’s teacher cares about them. Glow and grow notes create an open line of communication and show that you care to help students make positive choices.

Routines & Expectations – The routine of sending home a glow note can become one of the most exciting parts of the school day for your students! They will be eager to see who earned a glow note that day. Plus, that moment of acknowledging a student for meeting classroom expectations is a wonderful way to end the school day. Sending students out the door on a positive note can go a long way in supporting your classroom culture.

Student Accountability – Grow notes are a simple way to ensure that students are being held accountable for their behavior. The simple checklist with room for a quick note makes it easy to ensure that parents hear about what is going on in the classroom. You don’t want to send a grow note home for the same behavior every day. In that case, you’ll likely need to look at other behavior supports for that student.

Positive Feedback – Glow notes are such a fun way to provide positive feedback for students who are doing a great job. It also helps parents see that you’re not just watching for their students to make a mistake that warrants a grow note. That’s why I always tried to follow up a grow note for negative behavior with a glow note for positive behavior as soon as possible. Giving students praise and attention for their good choices can go a long way in building a positive classroom culture.

Free Printable Glow and Grow Notes

Would you like to try using glow and grow notes in your classroom? I’ve got you covered! Just fill out the form below and I’ll send a free set of glow and grow notes straight to your inbox. 

More Tips for Glow and Grow Notes

If you would like more tips for using glow and grow notes to build positive relationships in your classroom, be sure to check out this video! 

Save These Tips for Building Positive Classroom Culture

Be sure to save this post so you can come back to it later! Add the pin below to your favorite board of teaching tips on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find these tips when you’re looking for ways to build a positive culture in your classroom.