Back-to-School: Prioritizing Relationships and Building Community

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As we prepare to welcome students back into our classrooms, it is tempting to dive headfirst into content. We feel the pressure of pacing guides, content standards, looming assessments, and the constant ticking of the academic clock. It puts immense pressure on educators to dive into the curriculum, often at the expense of critical community building. Before we launch into our first unit of study, I want to encourage educators to lay the critical groundwork for a successful school year. The time and energy we invest in developing relationships with our students and fostering connections between the members of our class will pay dividends over the course of the school year.

Why It Matters: Relationships First, Learning Second

Learning doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in a space where students feel seen, safe, and supported. That’s why building relationships is not a “nice to have” at the start of the year. It is the foundation for everything that follows.

When teachers take the time to get to know who their students are, what they care about, what motivates them, and how they think they learn best, we’re better equipped to design and facilitate learning experiences that meet them where they are. This isn’t just about learning our students’ interests and hobbies. It’s learning about their identities, values, cultures, and preferences. It’s the recognition that we teach the whole child, and the more we know about them, the more effective we will be at using those insights to craft instruction and learning experiences that are meaningful, relevant, and inclusive.

Equally important is creating a sense of belonging and community among our students. Belonging is a universal human need. When students believe they are accepted and respected as valued contributors in a learning environment, they are more likely to engage deeply, persist academically, and experience a sense of overall well-being (Healy and Stroman, 2021). However, a 2022 Qualtrics research study found that only 51% of high school students felt like they belonged at their school. Given that a strong sense of belonging is crucial to academic engagement, this statistic should concern everyone in education.

If we want students to take academic risks, collaborate with peers, and engage in meaningful discussions, we need to help them feel comfortable with each other. That doesn’t happen by accident. It is the result of intentional design and dedicated class time. Starting the year with routines and activities that foster trust, connection, and psychological safety is one of the most important investments we can make at the start of a new school year.

How to Build Relationships and Community from Day One

So, how do we do that? How can we move beyond surface-level icebreakers to build meaningful connections that foster a strong classroom culture?

In my new asynchronous online course Start Strong: A Teacher’s Guide to Back-to-School Success, I share a full suite of strategies to help teachers design the first weeks of school with intention. Below are some of my favorite strategies!

The Random Autobiography

Instead of assigning the typical “Welcome Letter,” which I always found pretty underwhelming, I encourage teachers to invite their students to write a “Random Autobiography.” The goal is simple: tell me all the fun and random things about yourself in a free verse poem (no rhyming necessary!). Each line is a random detail about the student’s lived experiences, likes and dislikes, favorite memories, preferences, etc. I provide a collection of open-ended sentence starters like, “I’ve held a…,” “In my free time, I love to…,” “My favorite movies are…,” and “My go-to comfort food is…”

The randomness of the information and the order in which it’s presented removes the pressure to construct an impressive piece of writing and invites both vulnerability and humor, especially if you write a random autobiography about yourself to share with them so they can get to know you. I highly recommend that you do so! It provides a strong model and helps students learn more about the teacher they will be spending the year with.

It is amazing what students choose to share when they are not boxed into a letter format or a template of some kind. I’ve gained so much rich insight into my students’ personalities, identities, and lived experiences from their random autobiographies. And, all of that insight has helped me to connect with learners when we share a preference for something, like spicy Mexican food, or have had a similar experience, like losing someone we love. It also influences my approach to designing learning experiences that I believe will be enjoyable for a specific group of learners.

The Class Scavenger Hunt

A class scavenger hunt is one of my favorite ways to get students moving, mingling, and making meaningful connections during the first couple of weeks of school. It is a low-pressure, high-energy way for them to learn about each other. Even though it may feel like a simple icebreaker, if structured with intention, it can be a powerful way to help students learn each other’s names and form connections.

Here’s how it works! Each student receives a scavenger hunt sheet filled with fun and specific prompts. For example, “find someone who speaks more than one language,” “find someone who went on a camping trip this summer,” and “find someone who read more than three books for fun this summer.” Not only do they have to find classmates who fulfill the scavenger hunt item, but they have to include details on their paper about the languages they speak, where they went camping, and what books they read for fun. The goal is to use the hunt to spark conversations. The prompts are intentionally broad enough to include a diverse group of learners, yet specific enough to spark curiosity and conversation. And, if you need help generating a scavenger hunt appropriate to your grade level, use an AI chatbot, like Gemini, Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot, to help you!

The power of this activity is in its format. Students engage in one-on-one conversations. No group chats or passive scanning of the classroom. Each student introduces themselves, asks up to three scavenger hunt questions of their partner, and listens actively to determine whether their partner matches any of the items they asked about. If they do, the student records their partner’s name and answer before moving on to connect with someone new. This encourages direct interactions and ensures that each student is both seen and heard by multiple peers.

This activity sets the tone for a classroom culture that is built on curiosity, connection, empathy, and shared experiences. It is also a valuable formative tool. As students interact, I observe them to identify those who are more extroverted and those who appear to be shy or more introverted. I can identify students who seem comfortable engaging with new people and those who seem hesitant or unsure. It is interesting to watch them interact and respond to social cues. Teachers can use these details to design more effective groups at the start of the year when everyone is in the early stages of getting to know one another.

Co-creating Agreements

In many classrooms, the first week of school is a blur of syllabi and a list of rules and expectations for each class. Those rules are usually predefined, non-negotiable, and teacher-created. While well-intentioned, this approach sends the subtle message: this space belongs to me, and you are expected to follow my rules. What might happen if we flipped the script on this traditional approach?

Instead of listing rules for students to follow, what if we engaged them in the process of co-creating norms that will guide their experience and interactions in the classroom? Whether it’s crafting general classroom agreements about how to behave in the space or articulating clear expectations for specific learning activities, like small group discussions, collaborative work, or independent work during a station rotation, co-creation shifts responsibility from teacher enforcement to shared ownership.

When students are invited into the process, the outcome is more than a list of expectations. It is a set of community commitments. Students are no longer passive receivers of someone else’s rules; they are active contributors to a learning environment that they are invited to shape. This leads to more buy-in, accountability, and a clearer understanding of why those agreements matter.

The process itself is as important as the product. Co-creating agreements shouldn’t feel like a quick activity where students brainstorm generic rules. It’s a chance to ground classroom norms in our students’ real, lived experiences. It is an invitation to have them reflect deeply on what they have seen, felt, and needed in previous learning environments.

Start by asking students to recall moments in school when they felt safe participating in discussions, asking questions, or taking risks in front of others. What made those moments or spaces feel safe or supportive? Then invite them to reflect on the opposite. When was a time when they held back, shut down, or stayed silent? What was happening in the classroom with their peers or teachers that contributed to that discomfort?

These reflections anchor the conversation in authenticity. When students share these experiences in small groups, they begin to recognize common patterns and common needs. From there, the class can engage in a thoughtful discussion of what it takes to create and maintain a space where everyone feels safe, seen, and supported. We can ask questions like,

• What does a respectful, productive group conversation look like and sound like?
• How can we support each other during independent work time when the teacher is busy with another student?
• What do we want to do when someone makes a mistake, asks for help, or needs space?

This level of co-creation isn’t simply about creating norms. It is about developing awareness, empathy, and shared responsibility. When students can name what they need in a classroom and commit to behaviors they think will support those needs, they are more likely to hold themselves and each other accountable in a kind and constructive way.

These are just three of the many strategies I share in my Start Strong course that prioritize relationship building and help to lay the foundation for deeper learning. Whether it is creating a class Padlet Wall of students’ selfies paired with fun facts to learn names or gathering personal insight through learner profiles, every strategy is designed to help students feel known and help teachers better understand how to serve the beautifully diverse groups of learners they have the privilege of working with this year.

What We Are Building: A Foundation for Student Ownership

When we start the year by investing in relationships and community, we are creating the conditions for more effective teaching and learning all year long. A strong classroom community gives teachers the confidence to run small groups, differentiate instruction, and gradually release responsibility to students. When learners feel connected to their teacher and each other, they are more likely to take academic risks, engage in productive struggle, and contribute meaningfully to group work and discussions. Ownership blossoms from that sense of belonging.

We are also setting the tone for how we function as a learning community. That’s why co-creating class agreements isn’t an add-on. It is a critical part of this foundation. Rather than posting rules on a syllabus or wall, we engage students in naming the conditions that help them feel safe, respected, and supported. We invite them to reflect on what’s worked (and what hasn’t) in past learning environments and to identify the behaviors that make collaboration and independent work successful. This process isn’t just about establishing expectations. It’s about shaping the kind of culture we want to sustain all year.

The first few weeks of the school year are a golden opportunity to build the kind of classroom culture that celebrates and values all students. Where every learner has a voice. One where we, as teachers, can confidently pass the baton of responsibility to students because we have built a strong enough foundation to support the shift to student-centered and student-led learning.

Want To Start This School Year Strong?

Start Strong: A Teacher’s Guide to Back-to-School Success is a self-paced online course designed to help educators teaching 3rd-12th grade launch the school year with confidence, clarity, and purpose!

The course includes six practical, strategy-packed lessons.

1. Reflect and Rest
2. Design Your Learning Environment
3. Get to Know Your Students
4. Create Your Classroom Management Plan
5. Build a Culture of Community and Belonging
6. Set Clear Course Expectations for Students and Families

Whether you are a new teacher or a seasoned pro, Start Strong gives you the tools, templates, and support to design the kind of classroom culture where students and teachers can thrive!