Cultivating a Culture of Caring - Holly Hysjulien

Teacher 

Holly is an 8th-grade math teacher at Valley View Middle School. Holly has created a classroom culture that encourages students to believe themselves to be capable of greatness and feel a sense of belonging within the school.

Instructional Strategy

Holly enables students to create genuine connections within the school and beyond by cultivating a culture in which learners feel cared about and respected. She demonstrates caring in many ways: her resolve to teach kindness in her classroom, her firm belief that all learners are capable of success, and her determination to foster growth in each student.

Each day Holly finds time to reiterate the importance of kindness to her students by sharing personal stories, modeling caring behaviors, and addressing issues that affect students' lives. As she interacts with students, Holly communicates in such a heartfelt manner that her compassion is nearly palpable. She ends each class period with a reminder to students: “If you do one thing today, be kind to each other!”

To further cultivate a culture of caring in the math classroom, Holly spends time building up students’ confidence and motivation during weekly “Mindset Monday” activities. These activities help students learn that intelligence is not fixed but is something that can be acquired and grown through hard work and persistence. She prepares students for challenges that require grit by exclaiming things like, “We’re ready to roll!” and “Game on!” to get students in a mindset where giving up is not an option. In her classroom, learner confidence grows and students feel a great sense of connectedness. In addition to teaching linear algebra, Holly knows that every moment spent cultivating a caring classroom environment greatly benefits student achievement.

See What It Looks Like

Thanks to her enthusiasm and charisma, Holly has the unique ability to hold her students’ attention in the palm of her hand. Here she spends time discussing the differences between growth and fixed mindsets.

Holly strives to maximize learning each minute of each class. Students work in teams, move around the room, utilize technology, and speak with academic vocabulary. Here she is facilitating the learning while students work in teams and utilize an online graphing activity (Desmos.com).

Positive messages cover the walls of Holly’s classroom.

Additional Resources

• Association for Middle Level Education article: Caring in the Middle Level Classroom
• Research and resources on growth mindsets: MindsetWorks.com 
• Tool for visualizing mathematics that was used in Holly’s class: Desmos Classroom Activities