Building Community: Mix Chalk with Gratitude

Last year our school made a big effort to build community among the faculty, staff, students and families. We are a large middle school of over 1250 students, serving grades 7 and 8, with half of our student body changing every year, These are challenges to creating a sense of community, yes, but not insurmountable ones. In the end, we feel that we ended the year stronger and more united than we first walked in the door. 

Idea #1: Chalk Talk
Inspired by the school of one of our math teacher's nephews, we decided that on the first day of school, we would color up the side walks and entrance areas into school with chalk, welcoming our kids to the school. We wanted our students energized and excited about starting the year. We repeated "chalk talk" on the last day of school to send them off into summer, high school and beyond!

Idea #2: KC the Cougar
Buoyed by the success of "chalk talk," we started a campaign to convince our principal to purchase a mascot costume for Kilmer, Home of the Cougars. We envisioned the Cougar greeting students as they arrive at school some mornings, popping in to the cafeteria, and cheering at a basketball game in a neighborhood rivalry. After a focused public relations effort and research into costume prices, our principal agreed and the Cougar became a Kilmer Student for Life this winter.

KC the Mascot now has his own Twitter feed and we are planning to hold a school-wide bio writing contest. We all need to know KC's roots, right?

Idea #3: A School Hashtag for Social Media
As more teachers at our school jump on Twitter, we grabbed an idea we saw in use at other schools and began to encourage colleagues to tweet and using the the hashtag #kmspride. We also use the hashtag on our school and library Twitter accounts to showcase the learning going on at Kilmer.

Idea #4: #WHYITEACH
​We loved seeing all of the amazing #WHYITEACH tweets and photos popping up and decided to bring this to our school as well. We printed out colorful speech bubbles and put one in each teacher's mailbox with an explanatory note and got a great response. Then, we put it together in a display for our main hallway so that the whole school could see why we all do what we do. Want to do this at your school? It's a great reflective activity.  Teacher2Teacher has a great #WHYITEACH Storytelling Tookit.

Our next step is bring students into the equation, asking them to consider #WHYILEARN!

Idea #4: Gratitude Tree
Carrie, an awesome colleague, pulled together a Gratitude Tree during the month of November. She asked the staff to show gratitude to each other by writing small notes on paper leaves and sticking them on the branches of a tree on our main office window. We all walked by the tree, browsing and reflecting on the leaves, and periodically adding a leaf or two over the course of the month.

Idea #5: Coffee House
For years, our school has been hosting a monthly "Coffee House" on the last Friday of each month. This is a grass roots effort, with Fran, our chief organizer, pulling together coffee, tea, and basic supplies and different folks contributing food, potluck-style. It allows us to gather briefly in the morning, talk to colleagues we may not see too often, and  share a quick moment before the school day begins.

For Further Reading: School Community and Culture

Creating Culture in Schools (ASCD)
Building School Community, Culture, and Climate (Education World)
Useful Pinterest Boards

• ​School Culture Ideas
• School Culture and Climate
• School Climate Ideas
• School Culture

​How do you build community in your school? This is our 50th anniversary year and we have an in-house committee making exciting plans. We would love to hear other ideas that we can share and put into action at Kilmer!

Corey & Gretchen

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• BubbleUp Take5: Ideas for Administrators (June 17, 2016)