Cultivating a Culture of Joy and Celebration
Sometimes the months seem to crawl by. Week by long week we trudge through the everyday chaos that is teaching. Even writing that sentence felt depressing! If we are not careful, we will find ourselves focusing on that half of the story. That previous sentence is not untrue, but it is not a complete picture either. The days are also filled with beautiful moments of discovery, connection, and learning. There are moments of silly laughter and smiles. Teaching is not one or the other, it is both. So how can we shape our students to choose joy in the mundane? How can we create an environment in our classroom, and in our own hearts, that focuses on celebration? There are a few ways to do it, and the first one starts with you.
Teach with Joy
Joy is a biblical way of living that naturally spills over onto the lives of others. If we want our students to demonstrate this joy, we should live it in front of them. I will be the first to admit that this is a tall order. Some days as a teacher my only goal was survival, but I wanted more than that for my every day. Make it a pattern to celebrate what God is doing in your life and the lives of your students.
When I first started teaching, my mentor created a manila folder for me that had smiley face stickers all over it. She called it my “smile file.” As a veteran teacher she knew how hard the job was, so she gave me a tool to refocus myself. Over the course of the year, I would put notes from students in there or even write notes to myself about an event or silly thing that had happened. On the hardest days, I would pull out that folder and it always brought a smile to my face. It was a purposeful moment of choosing joy. I still have some of those notes, and they continue to make me smile fifteen years later. The sweet note from a sixth-grade boy letting me know he thought I looked like Angelina Jolie was one of my favorites. I look nothing like her!
Patterns of celebration
Like most things, celebration doesn’t happen by accident. Every good teacher I have ever met spends time before the first day of school planning procedures for classroom success. My suggestion is to add one more procedure to the list. Determine how you will celebrate student successes in your classroom. In the past I have used classroom celebration cheers that students could choose. I loved this one because everyone participated. I have also used notes 
to students, stickers, and rewards. I would also suggest that you review these plans once you get to know your students. As you learn more about them, celebrate them in ways that are significant to them. Just as adults have different love languages, so do the kids. Tailor your words and actions to help them feel seen and celebrated.
Student-led celebrations
Sometimes the only voice of celebration heard in a classroom is the teacher’s. While it is great for a teacher to celebrate his or her students, peer celebration is often more powerful than any teacher praise could be! The celebration cheers I mentioned above are a great start to peer celebration. To take it a step further, give space for authentic and natural praise from peer to peer. This could be done in a morning meeting or to close the day before dismissal. Create a space to call out the good that was done and noticed that day. To get used to the process, you might need to give students sentence frames to start such as: I noticed that (person) was kind when s/he (action) , or I am thankful that (person) (action). You just may be surprised by what students say and what an encouragement it can be. As with anything, make sure to set guidelines and expectations on this time to avoid unhelpful or gossiping comments. This practice can also serve to build community and safety in a classroom.
There are so many great ways to celebrate, and it doesn’t need to include balloons and cake. The recipe is so simple that we often miss it. Philippians 4:8 gives us God’s desire so clearly: “Finally brothers … whatever is true … whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things” (NASB). Joy and celebration are within reach, we just have to refocus our hearts and minds to embrace them.
Jessica Moulding works with TeachBeyond's Latin America region as the Curriculum Development Coordinator. Over the last 15 years she has served as a teacher in various grade levels, director, and school founder. She currently serves the region from the Dominican Republic. She enjoys puzzles and new challenges, which has led to her passion for curriculum and teacher training. She loves spending time with her young daughter and serving Christ through transformational education.