An example of a positive culture I experienced as a student was a culture food day in middle school. Everyone brought different dishes that came from a different culture. This allowed students and the teacher to experience foods from other cultures. Understanding how these cultures may eat different types of foods compared to their own culture.

As a student, I've witnessed disrespect through name-calling related to certain cultures. This can create a toxic environment, where students and staff are made to feel uncomfortable or unsafe. This is an example of negative behavior, as it is hurtful to those individuals.

I've witnessed many culture changes and topics throughout school, the positive culture experience was by far a core memory to learn about my peers and classmates diversified cultures compared to mine. The show and tell day that happens yearly at my middle school enlightens everyone on a deep dive into their specific culture, the many items that was brought in would even clarify as being that same object used for the same thing but being names different and shaped or built in a different way.

A negative culture experience of this day is two students who will have the exact same object but will have different names for the piece. The conversation turns into student 1's object is the correct name and student 2's is not but in summary the culture name for each object is the same. This can lead to bigger problems such as busted friendships and hurt hearts for weeks on end.

Teachers often make or break a class. They can turn the hardest of subjects into the most fun all year, or they can make the easiest of subjects into the most grueling of subjects. My Spanish teacher made Spanish fun to learn as she became a second mother to the entire class.

The opposite of this is teachers that will make your head spin by the end of the first week. Nothing makes me more irritated from an educational aspect than a teacher who doesn't seem to care. This can kill the learning vibe of a classroom and leave students feeling more frustrated than a college level calculus course.

One of the positive aspects I have seen as a student was when I was in High School. Every year, teachers and students would put on the "Scottie Games'' which was basically a smaller version of the Olympics for those students with special needs. Everyone from school would show up to cheer them on as they competed in different challenges. It made a difference for those students who never had opportunities to participate in different activities. Everyone had so much fun watching them laugh and have a good time, and it overall made the school have a happier environment.

A negative aspect I have seen is the times when teachers easily get annoyed with students when they ask questions. There have been many times I have witnessed students asking simple questions, or not understanding the topic which then leads the teacher to being hostile with the whole class for the entirety of the class. This negatively affects the students because it creates a sense of fear for that particular subject or teacher, and does not build good relationships between students and teachers.

A positive example of culture I experienced was witnessing a team of English teachers at my high school work together as a team to make each other's lessons and teaching styles as effective as possible. This created a professional environment in the school as well as reassured the students that there was not only one teacher looking out for them but a whole team keeping their best interests in mind.

An example of a negative culture I witnessed was in high school when the school theatre teacher would belittle all the female students including body-shaming them and telling them they were too big. As a result of this many female students developed poor mental health and body image issues. This created a negative environment in the class since nobody really wanted to be around her or in her class.

One positive culture I have witnessed as a student and/or in schools is the shift to becoming more focused on student growth rather than initial grades and/or testing scores. It is very important to meet students where they are at and focus on their individual growth instead of expecting all students to be on the same level. Different students need different supports and learn at different rates, this should be embraced to maximize their experiences as a student, which will also maximize the experience of an educator.

A negative culture I have witnessed as a student and/or in schools is the idea that students are not redeemable. This is more often associated with students with behavioral challenges, but it can also apply to students who are just not understanding academically. It isn't fair to label students that way because it is essentially giving up on them. All students deserve any and every chance to have support and grow no matter where they stand. This idea is harmful for the student in more ways than one, but it also negatively impacts the relationship between the student and the educator.

A positive culture i witnessed as a student in school is how teachers took students into consideration when teaching. Every student learns differently and teachers have started incorporating more teaching strategies to try and form their lessons to be more effective to students. When teachers listen to students and adapt to their needs, the culture of the school and that classroom improves.

A negative culture I witnessed as a student in school is complacency. A lot of times teachers would see a negative behavior, especially in high school, and would just ignore it. Not assisting a student who is acting out or struggling can affect their learning and negatively affect them as a person. When a teacher just accepts a bad behavior or pins a kid as a bad student or a problem, that student will start to have a lower sense of self and will continue to act out. Not only does this affect that student, it affects everyone in the class. The teacher will also become burnt out and irritated with the behavior and wont be able to teach as well as they could.

Positive culture that I've experienced in the classroom is where the teachers motivate students to feel comfortable to ask questions and engage in discussion that is student-led. It also creates a positive environment for students to be the best

Toxic/negative culture that I've witnessed is when students don't feel comfortable to speak out because of criticism making them feel like they don't fit in.

One of the most positive cultures I have experienced in a school was in a high school history class. Unlike many teachers, this teachers goal was not simply to present the class with information and assess them on how much they learned. This teacher strived to make learning enjoyable for every student. No two lectures were identical even if they were they were different classes. The teacher was very engaging but was also aware of students who did not want to be put in the spotlight. They were also understanding and able to adapt to different situations for each student instead of having a no exceptions blanket policy. It was an environment where all students felt they were treated fair and wanted to learn.

The quickest and unfortunately most common way to create a negative culture is when the teacher cares more about presenting their subject than they care about the students themselves. At every level of education teachers are in a unique opportunity to help students not only in the classroom but in life. Negative cultures appear when teachers do not treat students with respect and do not go out of their way to help students. Martin Luther King Jr. once said "Intelligence plus character, that is the true goal of education." All too often I fear that is forgotten.

A positive experience I have had in classroom culture is when a teacher lets us reflect on our work. I believe that being able to make corrections after turning something in helps students to see their mistakes. It can teach them how to fix their mistakes for next time!

A negative classroom experience I have is teachers not caring. I have had many different situations of a teacher not caring about their students and only caring about their pay check. They wouldn't teach the class, only give out busy work, and not grade fairly. They had a negative impact on the students because teachers are role models, and they are teaching them to not care.

One positive culture moment that I have experienced as a school member is when a teacher asks how everyone's day was every single day. I think that is something so small that has a huge impact because it truly started my day off better by just asking such a simple question. Also, it gave the classroom a whole different view and filled the air with such good vibes. She really made it a point to express how much she cared about us.

A negative culture moment I experienced is when a teacher does not care about you. I hate when the teacher is not able to meet with you when you are stress and walks into the room and creates this environment of lets just get this over with. You can tell this person just wants their money and then wants to leave. It made that class truly so unenjoyable and hard to learn. That is exactly the opposite of the atmosphere I want for my future classroom.

My high school principle is a good example of positive culture. She always made an effort to get to know as many students at the school that she could. I think that made students including me feel welcomed and at home.

A negative/toxic culture I have experienced was one of my professors. She was always negative and degrading students instead of trying to help when someone was incorrect. That environment made me not want to even go to class.

I found a positive culture as a student when my teacher showed a genuine care for who I was. The teacher didn't just how I was doing in the classroom, but how I was doing as a person. She cared about my sports, friends, family, and my overall well being. Having someone I felt truly wanted to know me. It made me feel like I had someone who was my cheerleader, and overall gave me a positive experience.

I had a negative culture experience as a student when my didn't even know I existed. This teacher came to class, called role by last name, taught the lesson, and then we left the class. Nobody in the class had ever had a real conversation with him. It was a funny joke around the classroom at first, but then when it sets in you realize you're invisible. On the last day of school I asked him "Do you know my name?" He responded with "No I'm a last name guy" I asked what my last name was and he just started laughing. The rest of the class asked him, and he didn't know anyones name. This created a negative experience because he didn't care about us just his job.

One positive culture experience I had in the class room was in third grade, I moved schools and had to meet all new friends and teachers. I was so scared but that teacher went out of her way to make me feel welcomed instead of just blowing off a new student. I still remember how she treated me to this day and and she's still my favorite teacher that I ever had.

A negative culture experience I had has happened many times, where teachers are just there to get paid and they do not care if you learn or retain the information nor do they try and make it the least bit fun. This is the worst for students who enjoy being at school and want to learn because the teacher is normally not very nice and puts as little effort into it as possible.

One of the most positive classroom cultures I have been a part of was when I did long-term substitute teaching a few years ago. In 2019-20, I covered various classes, but one of the most memorable was a freshman world geography course. I taught the course for about 4 months (which led into online instruction due to Covid) while a teacher was out on maternity leave. It was a smaller class of about 15 students. Everyday felt like a positive and exciting day. We would spend a little bit of our day just talking about life and the rest of the class was great discussions about different parts of the world and how geography impacts everything from our accents and personalities to our food and living style. After taking a break from school, it was my memories of this class that brought me back to wanting to finish my degree.

When I was a junior in high school, I had a statistics class that was just downright awful. I was a junior and the rest of the class was seniors. Almost every class, the teacher would fly through the notes in about 10 minutes. Then we would do some problems out of the textbook, and she would leave the answers on the podium for us to check. This just led to many students taking the easy way out and copying the answers and turning in the homework. Naturally, the tests were difficult for the ones who did not actually do the work, and very easy for those who did it. The teacher did not foster an environment that helped us learn and grow.

If I had to give just one example of a positive classroom culture that is still relatively fresh in my mind it would be my AP US history course when I was a junior in high school. In my high school, you could take both AP US history and AP English at the same time as special year-long courses that met every other day (in our block scheduling typical classes met every day for a semester) and as part of that you got to go on the "skinny block" field trip to Boston. The college credit and the field trip was the reason that most people took it, but we had an amazing history teacher that made what could have been a very boring and dense course about a subject that most high schoolers do not care about the highlight of a lot of students' time at my high school. He always had engaging and creative activities for us to learn the content, and when he had to lecture he did not just talk; he would do things like dress up in full costume as historical figures to teach the content in-character as that person (often complete with accents). From a high schooler's perspective he could be perceived as "dorky" or "corny", but he had absolutely no sense of embarrassment about it and his lessons were always memorable and funny, which truly helped us remember the content later on without needing to cram before tests with traditional methods of studying. It was not just a class, it was a once-in-a-lifetime school experience that me and my former classmates still reminisce about to this day. When a teacher is truly passionate about teaching a subject and engaging their students, that passion is often transferred to the students.

While I cannot think of a specific instance since this mostly occurred in elementary school for me, something that I still dislike to this day is the practice of collective punishment. I think a lot of people have had experiences as a child of getting recess taken away as an entire class because a handful of students were too loud all day, or getting in trouble just because they were in the general vicinity of a group of students who were misbehaving. I disagree with the practice, both because it just seems lazy to discipline students as a collective instead of looking deeper to into the actions of individuals, and because it creates animosity between classmates that can last long after the punishment is over. As a history buff, I like to make the semi-joking comparison that collective punishment of a civilian population by an occupying army is against the fourth Geneva Convention (1949). While taking away the whole class's recess for a day obviously is not the same thing as brutalizing civilians, the logic to me is that if something is against international law in a war, it is probably not the best practice in disciplining young children in a classroom, and we can do better.

An example of a positive culture I have experienced in the classroom is a teacher recognizing the acheivements of their students. I have been in classrooms where the teacher not only acknowledges academic achievements but also personal growth, acts of kindness, leadership, and resilience. This could include awards, shout-outs, or bulletin board displays that highlight students' efforts.

A negative culture that I have experienced in the classroom is inconsistent discipline from the teacher. For example, I have had teachers who would give students harsh consequences for minor misbehaving. However, other students would receive little to no consequences for major misbehaviors. This creates an unfair and toxic classroom environment.

One positive cultural moment I experienced as a student was in a class where the teacher encouraged and fostered mistakes. In doing so, students felt more open and comfortable participating in class.

One negative cultural moment I experienced as a student was teachers holding students to unrealistic expectations and treating them as machines meant to do only school work. The teacher did not take into consideration life outside of school for the students which added extra pressure.

One of the most positive experiences I've had with classroom culture was in my High School Marketing classes. The teachers really made the space a safe place to learn, grow, and have fun. They not only acknowledged our academic achievements, but achievements in our work ethic and the connections we made along the way. They gave us the resources we needed to accomplish both in the classroom and life in general. They continued to work closely with each group to ensure the best possible outcome both academically, but also competitively. They truly made learning easy and fun. One of the best parts about being in their classes was that we weren't coddled, but if we had questions they would help us find the answer instead of outright giving it away.

One of the worst classroom cultures I've experienced was not in my own class or a teacher of my own but rather, teachers who made their classes feel unintelligent. There are several teachers I have encountered who hold themselves at a standard so high it makes students feel inadequate. Either they claimed they were "preparing us for college" or judged students and other teachers for the way they preferred to learn/teach. This inevitably made students feel like they couldn't succeed in that class. It also made teachers feel like they needed to do more or be stricter, some just completely saw them for what they were, because of how they treated their students and coworkers. Due to their mindset, it created a less productive space for students to learn, and a viod between these teachers and others.

There are lots of ways that teachers can make their classrooms and the school a positive environment, by being a positive role model for students and maintaining a positive environment where they feel safe to learn. My senior year of high school I had a math teacher who I adored, I hate math, and he class was the highlight of everyday. She had me first period and second period she had my younger brother, and she would always tell us how much she loved having us in her classes and how she liked us as people in general. She wrote my senior sendoff note that I got at graduation and I invited her there too, she made a huge difference in the school environment overall.

I have had teachers who make the day miserable as well, one example was my forensics teacher who I had my senior year as well. She was just the worst and showed zero interest in her job or teaching, she never showed interest in anything school related. She would just yell at all of us whether it was warranted or not. I was never one to argue with my teachers or say anything that could get me in trouble but she needed it, and her and I had it out a couple of times. She made students and other teachers be in a bad mood.

A positive experience I had as a student was a good school culture where the teachers truly cared for the students. I had to go to the hospital and when I got back to the school and teachers welcomed me back and were checking on me. My guidance counselor made a poster that all of my classmates signed, and they delivered it to my hospital room. My teachers created a positive and hopeful environment. If you ever struggled, they would take time to go step by step and ensure you were grasping the concept. 

A negative concept I saw as a student was teachers not respecting the other classes. I had a math teacher who thought her class was the most important one and she would assign large amounts of homework and would not coordinate with the other classes to ensure that a healthy balance was given.

One of my most positive classroom culture experiences in school was when my band teacher would have us play our solos, duets, and trios in front of the class and clap for us. It made us feel proud of our accomplishments and made us want to get better and perform better in bigger crowds.

One of the most negative classroom culture experiences I had was when I had a teacher who had her kid in her class. She would always yell and get on to the students around him but not him. It made me hate the class and I honestly skipped the class most days.

One example of a positive culture I have experienced as a student in high school is through my math teacher. My math teacher during my sophomore year and senior year was also my Ultimate Frisbee Coach. He made sure to greet everyone by name when they walk through the door, and started each day with a question that everyone gets to answer. He created a welcoming and positive culture in his classroom through his care for his students.

One example of negative Culture I experienced as a student was through lack of communication from Central Office. I was a student staff member for my district's Media and Event Services. The leader was put under too much pressure under the position and left, and Central Office gave the job to another person who was not told what kind of workload it would be. This miscommunication caused many problems and left an overall negative impact on the staff, students, and program itself.

A positive culture I experienced as a student was my 6th grade Social Studies class. My teacher was so passionate about everything he taught and you could tell he truly cared about everyone in that class. If you were struggling in your academics or with personal things, he was always there to help. He also brought light to many student's accomplishments. I remember one time I randomly wrote a poem in class and he asked to read it after the period was over. I thought I was going to get in trouble for not paying attention but instead he talked to me about the poem and told me he wanted me to share it with the class. I will always remember that moment and so many others I had in that class.

A negative culture I experienced was my high school choir teacher. I was in choir all four years of high school and I met my best friends in that class. My senior year I was in an a cappella group with them and met more of my closest friends in that group also. The first three years were fine with little bumps along the way like my teacher getting upset with certain groups more than others and favoring certain people. The last year is when it all went downhill. She started pinning us against each other by making it seem like my friends and I were cliquey, even though our whole group was very very close (we all hang out to this day) and we always put in effort to make sure everyone feels included. We are not the type of people to purposely leave someone out. She also would talk about many members of the group behind their backs, to us. After we graduated there are still juniors that are now seniors in the group. They told us that she still talks about us negatively to them, which in my opinion is very unprofessional and just weird. We all gave 4 years of our life to that program and had many many accomplishments throughout the way, especially towards the end. It was very hurtful that a teacher I, and many others, looked up to would say such negative things about her students.

One of the positive experiences I had was with one of my high school's history teachers. He took on his job with the highest importance. He cared for students inside and outside of the classroom. He was "the" teacher to go to for academic help and personal advice. My junior year, I was struggling with a lot, and he made sure to keep me on top of my schoolwork without putting too much pressure on me or overwhelming me. The way he was impacted the school's culture most positively.

A more negative impact on my high school's culture was through my principal. He created many rules in his first year that he used for his middle school that were not productive to the learning environment. Certain technology rules, student section rules, and dress code were the main factors. The students could not trust him, and made them want to come to school even less. The faculty even agreed to our dissent for these rules, causing an overall negative culture.

An example of positive culture that I have experienced as a student, is the environment of my high school Spanish class. My teacher was very kind and put not only her skills into her classroom but also her heart and soul. She was very kind but also made the classroom respect her by setting clear standards and expectations in the school. She had a set routine in her classroom and was excited to come and teach her class each day.

I have also had many bad experiences in the education system. I have witnessed many different aspects. I feel like some of the numerous experiences have similar aspects; these include, not stating clear expectations, working for the paycheck rather than the impact of your teaching, lack of organization skills, lack of consistency, etc.

A positive environment I have had in school is my math class I had in high school. She taught us geometry and I wasn't very good at it but she would also stop and let us ask questions. It was also very helpful to have classmates that were respectful and not laugh if your question seemed dumb to them. Overall everything about the class was a very positive culture and it made it easier to learn.

An example of me having a negative culture was my chemistry i took in highschool. The teacher expected us to already know so much and for us just to understand what she was saying and was not good at answering questions. Also the people in the class were very rude when you did have one. It was a lot harder to learn in the class because of all that and the expectations were too high. 

A positive culture that I have experienced as a student, specifically a college student, is being in an organization called ISEC. In this organization, we all thrive on helping each other out as much as we can. The organization leaders are very helpful, and I know that I wouldn't be as far in school without their help.

A negative culture I experienced as a middle school student, was having an unfair teacher. This teacher would always pick on me and other students of my race for no reason at all. She would call us out and make very disrespectful comments about us.

An example of positive culture I experienced throughout my time as a student was the positive student-teacher relationships I had and experienced from others. All throughout school the biggest parts were the staff and how supporting and encouraging they were of all of the students in their care. The staff all seemed to always get along great, and they tried their absolute best to support and encourage their students in their dreams and accomplishments. This overall affected the energy of the students and the staff in pretty positive ways, which decreased some conflicts and created a larger trust between everyone.

An example of a positive environment I have experienced as a student is the classroom environment of my student body class. Being involved in the decision making of the school was empowering to see that students had an opportunity to express their opinions. The passion of the teacher to help make student ideas happen and the push to encourage students to speak up for their classmates created an overall positive environment.

A toxic/negative environment i experienced in a school was when my high school got a new principal. This principal was overbearing and did not honor school traditions. It was sad to see the push for teachers who had been at my high school for a long time to leave. This principal did not treat teachers in a professional manner and made them feel as if she did not trust them to do their jobs good enough. Overall this environment was toxic for teachers and students due to the principals neglect of student and teacher input.

My high school had a one hour lunch where students could go wherever they needed to for that day. This allowed students to get tutoring, participate in clubs, and form lasting relationships with their favorite teacher! As a student with a learning disability, this was incredibly impactful for me with getting extra tutoring because I didn't have time to go after school. It was also a nice brain break for students and teachers to take a breath.

One example of a negative environment I had in school was my second grade teacher. While it was not her job to parent us, she didn't establish a nurturing environment for her younger class. She was cold and strict and often took away recess for our entire class- which was a much needed energy releaser for what she called "rowdy kids". I believe empathy and grace are much needed attributes a teacher must have.