There were multiple points in my teaching career when I seriously questioned whether I wanted to stay in education.

I loved teaching. But the struggle was real.

There were days when I would catch a glimmer of what teaching could be—the connection, the learning, the moments that made all of the work feel worth it.

But every year, by the time we got down to the real academics in mid-September, I was already in survival mode.

At the time, I taught fifth grade, and the teacher next door taught fourth. She was a master at compliance and, quite frankly, scare tactics.

And I thought I wanted to be like her.

I thought that was what good classroom management looked like.

And eventually? I got pretty good at it too.

My students complied. I could control a room. Expectations were followed.

But I had mistaken compliance for great teaching.

I didn’t know it yet, but getting kids to do what I said was nowhere near the highest level of teaching.

Kids are hard today, but they were hard then too. In fact, my school was known for having a challenging student population. And without even realizing it, I walked into my classroom with my guard already up.

I was prepared to manage students before I had ever really learned how to build a classroom with them.

So I did what a lot of hardworking teachers do.

I spent nights planning, weekends catching up, and far too much time trying to figure out why my classroom still felt harder than it should.

I cared deeply. I showed up. I gave everything I had.

But for a long time, I was constantly reacting instead of intentionally leading.

I was managing behavior, repeating expectations, fixing problems, and trying to hold everything together with more effort.

Most Classroom Struggles Are Not Behavior Problems First

This was one of the biggest lessons I had to learn the hard way.

For years, I thought the answer was better classroom management.

More reminders. More consequences. More strategies. More teacher effort.

Basically, I kept trying to get better at managing what was already happening.

But the longer I taught, the more I realized I was often trying to solve the wrong problem.

Most classroom struggles are not behavior problems first. They are classroom culture problems first.

And when I say culture, I am not talking about bulletin boards, cute labels, matching bins, or a perfectly decorated classroom.

I mean what it actually feels like to be a student in your room every single day.

• How students enter and move through the room.
• How they talk to you and to one another.
• How they participate and contribute.
• What the expectations look and sound like in action.
• Whether students feel like the classroom belongs to them too.
• How much ownership they are expected—and taught—to take.

That is classroom culture.

It is built in the routines, the relationships, the language, the expectations, and the hundreds of little experiences students have in your room.

And whether we mean to or not, we are always building it.

The only question is whether we are building it intentionally.

The Mistake I Kept Making

I used to jump straight into planning.

The bins. The labels. The bulletin boards. The first-week activities. The materials. The routines. The Pinterest boards. And, obviously, the Target runs.

And listen, I love a good Target run as much as the next teacher.

But none of that answers the most important question:

What are you actually trying to build?

Before we plan another activity or buy another container, we need to look honestly at the classroom we just lived through.

• What worked?
• What didn’t?
• What drained me?
• What did I spend way too much time doing for students?
• What do I absolutely refuse to repeat?
• What kind of classroom do I actually WANT to teach in?

Because a stronger classroom is not going to come from a better theme, prettier labels, or one magical first-week activity.

It comes from making more intentional decisions about how students will participate, contribute, connect, and take ownership from the very beginning.

Reflection Before Reaction

This is exactly why BUILD YOUR CLASSROOM™ starts with reflection.

Not because reflection magically fixes a classroom.

But because you cannot intentionally build something different if you have never stopped to figure out what needs to be different.

Otherwise, we do what teachers are very good at doing.

We start planning.

We find new activities. We rewrite the routines. We organize the room. We make another list.

And then September comes, and somehow we end up recreating many of the same patterns we were trying to leave behind.

So before you plan another routine, activity, or lesson, start here:

This is not about beating yourself up over what did not work.

It is about being willing to look at it long enough to make a different decision next time.

Because stronger classroom culture starts long before the first student walks through the door.

It starts with deciding what you want that classroom to become—and then building toward it on purpose.

The 3 Success Pillars™

Eventually, I realized that the strongest decisions I was making in my classroom kept coming back to the same three things.

Student Voice. Relationships. High Expectations.

Those became what I now call the 3 Success Pillars™—and today, everything I build inside TopTEN moves through these three lenses.

Because before I add a routine, plan an activity, change an expectation, or introduce something new, I want to know:

What is this actually building?

These three pillars completely changed the way I looked at my classroom.

They changed how I planned.

They changed how I taught routines and expectations.

They changed how I designed lessons, structured student talk, built classroom jobs, handled transitions, and thought about student leadership.

Even the first few minutes of the day started to look different.

Because I stopped asking only:

“How do I get students to do this?”

And I started asking better questions.

How can students take more ownership here?

How can this strengthen our relationships?

What can I expect students to learn to do for themselves?

That is when my classroom stopped feeling like a collection of disconnected strategies I was constantly trying to manage.

It started feeling intentionally built.

You Don’t Have to Fix Everything at Once

Once you start reflecting, it can be very easy to make a list of approximately 47 things you want to change.

Ask me how I know.

But trying to overhaul your entire classroom at once usually leads to one thing:

More work for you.

Instead, inside Build Your Classroom, I have teachers look at five Classroom Impact Areas™ and choose one or two places where a more intentional decision could make the biggest difference.

• Routines & Structures™ — How students arrive, transition, use materials, get help, move through the room, and handle everyday classroom responsibilities.
• Student Ownership™ — Where students can lead, make decisions, solve problems, reflect, collaborate, and do more for themselves.
• Classroom Culture™ — How students build relationships, participate, contribute, feel known, and become part of the classroom community.
• Engagement & Instruction™ — How students talk, think, participate, work together, struggle productively, and reflect on their learning.
• Teacher Follow-Through™ — How clearly expectations are taught, reinforced, revisited, and followed through with consistently.

You do not need to rebuild everything tomorrow.

Find the place that is costing you the most time, creating the most friction, or keeping students from taking the ownership you know they are capable of.

Start there.

Make one intentional decision.

Teach it. Practice it. Follow through.

Then build from there.

Start With One Question

You do not need a new planner, a three-hour meeting with yourself, or a color-coded spreadsheet to start this work.

Grab a notebook and answer one question:

Then get specific.

Maybe transitions took forever.

Maybe students asked you questions they were perfectly capable of answering themselves.

Maybe the same few students did all the talking.

Maybe you spent half the day reminding everyone what they were supposed to be doing.

Maybe students worked beside one another all year but never really became a community.

Maybe you knew exactly what you expected—but your follow-through was inconsistent.

Whatever comes to mind, don’t make excuses for it.

And don’t beat yourself up over it either.

Just name it.

Because once you can name the pattern, you can start making different decisions.

That’s where intentional building begins.

ABOUT SARAH

I Spent Years Trying to Manage What I Had Never Intentionally Built

I’m Sarah Legault, founder of the Teachers Empowerment Network, instructional coach, and veteran educator.

And much of what I teach today came from learning the hard way that getting students to comply is not the same thing as building a strong classroom.

Everything I teach now comes back to one belief:

Culture First. Behavior Second.™

That does not mean behavior does not matter.

It means I would rather teach students how to participate, contribute, work together, solve problems, take responsibility, and meet high expectations than spend the year reacting when they do not.

That is why my work is built around the 3 Success Pillars™: Student Voice, Relationships, and High Expectations.

They are the lenses I use to think about the everyday experiences that shape a classroom—from how students enter and talk with a partner to how they transition, reflect, collaborate, take ownership, and contribute to their community.

Real Talk. Real Tools. Real Results.

If you are tired of collecting classroom-management ideas and still feeling like you are doing all the work, you are in the right place.

Build the classroom you actually WANT to teach in.