On September 9th, I will have the privilege of gathering virtually with Catholic educators and school leaders for “The Joy in the Work: Cultivating School Cultures Where Everyone Belongs” conversation, hosted by Marymount University | Marymount University School of Education.
I am incredibly grateful for the invitation to lead this discussion. Cultivating joy is a topic that has shaped my own life, my work in education, and increasingly, the way I think about the communities we create for one another.
As educators, we spend so much of our time giving, preparing, responding, solving, and caring for others. I hope this evening creates a little space for us to consider what sustains us in this important work, what helps people feel seen and valued within our schools, and how small, intentional choices can influence the culture experienced by both adults and students.
I certainly do not have all the answers. I continue to learn from the educators, leaders, students, families, and communities I am blessed to encounter and serve. I am looking forward to sharing some of those lessons, some of the research that has shaped my thinking, and a preview of the practices explored in my forthcoming Loyola Press book, “The Four Pillars of JOY for Catholic Educators: A Pocket Retreat.”
Most of all, I hope this will be a conversation that leaves each of us encouraged to notice the good already present in our school communities and perhaps more intentional about creating conditions where joy, belonging, and purpose can take deeper root.
If this topic speaks to your heart, I would be honored to have you join the conversation. All are welcome!
Wednesday, September 9 | 6:00 PM ET Hosted by Marymount University Register here: https://bit.ly/4c2UWFV
When we train our eyes to see the good, amazing things happen.
Thank you, Jessica Marotta, Carly Flumer, MS, Jennifer Thompson and the entire MU team for the support and encouragement ⚜️💙!
We can do more for educators and students when we do it together!
What if one of the greatest gifts we can give the people with whom we work is permission?
Permission to ask a question. Permission to say, “I don’t know yet.” Permission to try something new. Permission to make a mistake. Permission to learn from one another, and perhaps, permission to experience JOY along the way.
After a wonderful conversation with my friend and colleague, Dr. Nicci Dowd, for Episode 2 of the Joy in the Work series on Sharing the Good with Dr. Denise Ball, these are the questions that came to mind.
Our episode is titled Make Room for Joy, but our conversation reminded me that making room for joy may begin by making room for people to be learners.
We Are All Still Learning
Nicci shared an idea during our conversation that has stayed with me: academic humility.
There is something freeing about recognizing that none of us has all the answers. Teachers do not. School leaders do not. Professors do not. Researchers do not, and that is okay.
We can bring years of education, research, leadership experience, and expertise into a room and still remain open to the possibility that someone sitting beside us may see something we have missed. That is one of the reasons I value collaboration so deeply. Many voices create the best outcomes.
When we create environments where people feel safe enough to ask questions, offer ideas, respectfully disagree, try something new, make a mistake, and begin again, we are doing more than supporting professional learning. We are helping create a culture in which people can grow; I believe there can be tremendous joy in that growth.
Making Room for Joy Means Making Room for Mistakes
As educators, we frequently tell students that mistakes are part of learning. But do the adults in our schools believe the same is true for them? That question is worth considering. If a teacher tries a new instructional strategy and it does not work as planned, what happens next? If a new school leader admits that they do not know the answer, how is that received? If someone offers a different perspective during a faculty meeting or professional learning session, do we become curious or defensive? If a colleague needs help, have we created an environment where asking for it feels safe?
The answers to those questions tell us something about culture. School culture is not created only through mission statements, strategic plans, programs, or initiatives. It is experienced in the everyday interactions between people: how we listen, how we respond, how we encourage, how we handle mistakes, how we celebrate growth, and whether the people around us believe they are valued members of the community. Sometimes the smallest interactions communicate the biggest messages.
UDL, Joy, and Creating Space for Every Learner
Nicci also shared how Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, has shaped the way she approaches her courses at Marymount University and the professional learning she facilitates with educators as an adjunct consultant for ADAC, Inc.
I loved hearing her connect the Universal Design for Learning to this conversation because at its heart, UDL asks us to think intentionally about the learners in front of us. Who is in the room? What might help them engage? What barriers might we remove? How might we provide different pathways for people to learn, participate, demonstrate understanding, and grow? Those questions matter whether the learners sitting before us are children, graduate students, teachers, or school leaders, and perhaps there is a connection to joy here too.
When people know they do not have to learn exactly like everyone else, when their questions are welcomed, when they have opportunities to contribute their gifts, and when mistakes are treated as part of learning rather than evidence that they do not belong, we make room for something important to happen.
We make room for growth, for belonging, and for joy.
The Joy of Learning Alongside One Another
One of the gifts of this season of my own work is the opportunity to keep learning alongside thoughtful people.
Nicci and I have the privilege of serving together on the Marymount University faculty, collaborating as adjunct consultants with ADAC, Inc., and beginning a second year of research with an amazing team focused on school culture and developing practical tools to help school leaders create environments where educators thrive.
Different settings, roles, and conversations, but there is a common thread running through all of them:
We can do more for the educators, school leaders, students, and families we serve when we learn and work together.
That is one of the reasons these Joy in the Work conversations are bringing me so much joy themselves. They are not intended to suggest that education is easy or that choosing joy somehow removes the very real challenges educators face. Instead, I hope they create a little space for us to stop, listen to one another, share what we are learning, ask good questions, and remember the good that continues to happen every day in classrooms, schools, universities, dioceses, and communities.
A Question for the New School Year
As another school year begins, perhaps there is a question each of us can carry into the environments we help create:
Do the people around me have permission to still be learners, and to experience joy while doing it?
Imagine what could happen in our classrooms, faculty meetings, professional learning communities, and leadership teams if the answer increasingly became yes. Perhaps making room for joy begins by making room for one another.
Join the Conversation
I am grateful to Dr. Nicci Dowd for sharing her wisdom, experience, and joy in Episode 2 of the Joy in the Work series, Make Room for Joy.
Join the conversation on YouTube: [https://youtu.be/ZeFiwsHr9hg] or listen wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.
As you begin another week of this important work, I invite you to consider:
Where are you finding joy in the work?
AND perhaps just as importantly:
How are you making room for someone else to find it too?
When we train our eyes to see the good, amazing things happen.
There are moments in life when we are given the gift of seeing something familiar through a different lens.
This week has been one of those gifts for me.
I have had the privilege of spending several days with my mother- and father-in-law, who have been married for 65 years. I came into this week simply hoping to lend a helping hand. Instead, I have found myself deeply moved by what I have been allowed to witness. Sixty-five years of marriage…sixty-five years of building a life together.
Children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, joy and disappointment, laughter and probably a few tears, seasons of abundance and seasons of uncertainty. There has been sacrifice, moments of forgiveness, examples of faith. They have walked through moments of illness, celebration, and ordinary days that, when woven together, become an extraordinary life…and through it all, words.
Words spoken across kitchen tables and during long car rides. Words exchanged while raising 7 children and navigating the challenges of life. Words of encouragement during difficult seasons. Words of forgiveness, words of prayer, and words that communicated, in countless ways, I am here. I love you. We are in this together and let us share our joys and sorrows as grandpa taught us.
This week, I have had the honor of hearing some of those words.
I have listened as prayers were offered for children, their spouses, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren by name. I have heard gratitude expressed for the men and women their children have become. I have witnessed love and devotion that have been cultivated over more than six decades. Somewhere along the way, I realized that I wasn’t simply listening to words.
I was witnessing their legacy. That realization has stayed with me.
It has caused me to look at my own words differently and to ask a question I have not been able to shake: What will be the legacy of my words?
The Words We Leave Behind
When we hear the word legacy, we may think about accomplishments, careers, possessions, awards, organizations built, books written, or things passed from one generation to another.
However, perhaps some of the most important parts of our legacy will never appear on a résumé or hang on a wall. Perhaps our legacy also lives in the words other people carry because of us. Think for a moment about the people who have shaped your life.
Can you still hear some of their words? Maybe a parent told you, I’m proud of you. Maybe a teacher saw something in you before you could see it in yourself. Maybe a coach said, Try again. You’ve got this.
Maybe a friend sat beside you during a difficult season and reminded you that you did not have to walk through it alone. Sometimes a sentence spoken in seconds lives within another person for decades. Unfortunately, the opposite can also be true.
Words can discourage, words can diminish, words can divide, and words spoken carelessly in a moment can remain in someone’s heart long after the person who spoke them has forgotten the conversation entirely.
We don’t have to look far to see examples of words being used to tear down rather than build up. Our public discourse, social media feeds, workplaces, schools, communities, and sometimes even our homes can become filled with language that wounds rather than heals.
We may not be able to control all the words filling the world around us.
BUT we can decide what words enter the world through us!
For Educators: What Will Our Students Carry With Them?
As another school year begins, this question feels particularly important for educators.
Soon, classrooms will once again be filled with young people bringing their gifts, questions, hopes, insecurities, experiences, and possibilities through our doors.
They will learn countless lessons this year. They will solve equations, read stories, conduct experiments, study history, create art, collaborate, make mistakes, ask questions, and discover new things about themselves and the world around them.
They will forget some of what we teach, but what words might they carry with them?
What words will my students carry after they leave my classroom?
Did I tell them they were capable?
Did I cultivate curiosity rather than a fear of being wrong?
Did I encourage their sense of wonder?
Did my words communicate, I see something in you?
Did I help a young person recognize a gift or talent they had not yet discovered for themselves?
Educators are entrusted with an extraordinary opportunity. Sometimes a sentence that takes us five seconds to speak becomes part of the internal voice a young person carries for years.
What an incredible privilege, and what an incredible responsibility!
For Leaders: What Do People Experience in Our Presence?
The same reflection applies to leadership. Leadership inevitably involves words. We encourage, redirect, question, challenge, explain, listen, coach, correct, celebrate, and sometimes enter conversations we would rather avoid.
So I have been reflecting:
What words do people associate with being in my presence?
Did my words invite collaboration?
Did they make difficult conversations safer and more productive?
Did I listen with a genuine desire to understand?
Did I ask questions before making assumptions?
Have my words preserved another person’s dignity, even when disagreement was necessary?
Positive words do not require us to avoid difficult truths.
We can disagree without diminishing. We can correct without humiliating. We can hold someone accountable while still honoring their dignity. We can speak truth and remain kind. Sometimes the legacy of our leadership may be found not in the decisions we made, but in how people experienced themselves while making those decisions alongside us.
For Families: What Are We Handing to the Next Generation?
Perhaps this is the question that has touched me most deeply this week.
What language are we handing from one generation to the next through the words we choose today?
After 65 years of marriage, my mother- and father-in-law have created far more than a shared history. They have created a vocabulary of family…
Words of faith,
Words of prayer,
Words of gratitude, and
Words spoken over children who eventually became adults, spouses, parents, and grandparents themselves.
Some of those words are being carried forward into another generation.
It makes me think about the words I choose with my own husband, my adult children, family members, and friends. What language am I helping to make part of our family’s story? What will they remember when I am no longer in the room? What will they repeat? What will they pass along? What words of mine might someday come back to them when they need encouragement, peace, courage, or hope?
Sometimes the Legacy Is in the Words We Choose Not to Say
This week has also reminded me that the legacy of our words isn’t only about what we say. Sometimes it is about the words we choose not to say:
The angry response we decide not to send,
The criticism that serves no constructive purpose, or
The last word we decide we don’t need to have.
Sometimes our legacy is found in the words we finally find the courage to say.
I was wrong,
I am sorry,
Please forgive me,
Help me understand,
I forgive you, and
Let’s begin again!
There is tremendous power in an apology finally offered, a difficult conversation courageously entered, or grace extended when someone else’s words have hurt us.
Forgiveness has a language, too. So does humility, and so does GRACE.
The Language of Our Lives
As I have reflected this week, I have also thought about phrases that have become part of my own vocabulary over the years:
Calm your spirit,
Thankful Thursday,
Sharing the Good, and
When we train our eyes to see the good, amazing things happen.
They are simple words, but over time, repeated words can become invitations to a way of seeing.
This relfection led me to another question that reached my heart:
What phrases have I repeated so often that the people I love might someday hear them even when I am no longer in the room?
Perhaps that is one measure of a life well lived. Not simply: What did I accomplish? But: How did people feel after being in my presence?
Did my words give others courage?
Did they spark inquiry and curiosity?
Did they strengthen someone’s sense of belonging?
Did they bring peace into a difficult moment?
Did they point toward hope?
Did they help another person recognize the good within themselves?
If These Words Were Remembered…
I began this week hoping to be helpful. Instead, I feel as though I have been given a gift.
I have been given the opportunity to slow down, to listen, to observe, and to look through a different lens at a life and marriage built over 65 years.
There has been something sacred about witnessing love expressed not through grand gestures, but through presence, care, prayer, devotion, and words spoken faithfully over a lifetime.
I am grateful to have walked through this week looking through this lens, and perhaps that is why this reflection feels so important to share, because someone will carry something we say today:
A child,
A spouse,
A colleague,
A friend,
A student,
A family member, or
Perhaps even a stranger.
We may never know which sentence stays with them.
So as we begin a new school year and step into another day filled with opportunities to encounter one another, perhaps we can pause before we speak, teach, correct, post, email, lead, or respond and ask:
If these words were remembered, would I be grateful they were mine?
Maybe we can ask one another another reflection question, too:
What words have stayed with you because someone believed in you, encouraged you, or helped you see something in yourself that you couldn’t yet see?
Those remembered words remind us that what we say today can become part of someone else’s tomorrow.
Choose words that encourage,
Choose words that invite wonder,
Choose words that heal,
Choose words that forgive,
Choose words that strengthen,
Choose words that preserve dignity,
Choose words that remind another person of their worth, and
Choose words that help us see the good.
Because long after a conversation ends, our words may continue living in another person’s heart.
So, I leave you with the question that has accompanied me throughout this extraordinary week:
There is no shortage of serious work to be done in education.
We are navigating teacher shortages, student needs, changing technologies, academic expectations, family concerns, budgets, enrollment, and the countless responsibilities that accompany serving a school community. For school leaders and educators, the work matters deeply and sometimes can feel very heavy.
But what if we did not have to wait until the work became easier to experience joy? What if joy could be one of the ways we approach the work in the first place?
That question is at the heart of a new series I am grateful to share through Sharing the Good with Dr. Denise Ball: Joy in the Work.
Joy Is More Than a Feeling
When we talk about joy in education, I do not mean ignoring challenges, pretending difficult circumstances do not exist, or asking educators to simply “be positive.”
Authentic joy makes room for the reality of the work. It allows us to acknowledge that something can be difficult and meaningful at the same time. We can carry concerns for students and still laugh with colleagues, work through a challenging season and still notice what is good. Looking through this lens, it allows us to have the difficult conversations and still choose to treat one another with dignity, hope, and grace.
There is research behind the importance of these positive experiences. Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory suggests that positive emotions can broaden people’s thinking and help build enduring personal and social resources over time (Fredrickson, 2001). This is important in school setting. Schools depend upon relationships, creativity, problem solving, collaboration, trust, and the willingness of people to continue showing up for one another.
My own research examining teacher retention reinforces the importance of the environment in which educators work. Teachers’ experiences of school climate, leadership, collaboration, and the overall quality of school life are deeply connected to the conditions that encourage educators to remain and thrive within their school communities (Ball, 2023).
Darling-Hammond and colleagues (2026) similarly emphasize the central role of school leaders in creating positive climates that welcome and connect staff, students, and families. Their research synthesis identifies effective leadership as an important influence on teacher retention, school stability, and the conditions in which both educators and students can thrive.
That connection matters when we talk about joy because school culture is not shaped only through policies, schedules, programs, strategic plans, or mission statements. Culture is experienced through the everyday interactions of the people within a community. It is reflected in how we greet one another, how we respond when someone makes a mistake, how we celebrate accomplishments, how we listen, how we handle difficult moments, and how people feel when they walk through our doors.
Perhaps joy deserves a place in that conversation too.
Episode 1: Lead with Joy
I could not imagine a better person to begin this series with than my friend and fellow Catholic educator, Dr. Christina Mendez-Hall.
Christina radiates joy!
Not a superficial joy that suggests everything is always wonderful, but the kind of joy that seems rooted in gratitude, faith, relationships, purpose, and an intentional decision about how she wants to show up for others.
Our conversation, Lead with Joy, asks educators and school leaders to consider something deceptively simple:
What if joy is the first step?
Before the strategic plan, before the faculty meeting, before the professional development, and before we tackle the next problem, how are we showing up?
Leaders have an extraordinary opportunity to influence the emotional climate of a community. That does not mean leaders must always be cheerful. It means recognizing that our words, presence, reactions, encouragement, gratitude, and attention communicate something to the people around us.
The same is true for teachers. Students notice how we enter a room. Colleagues notice whether we acknowledge them. Families notice whether they feel welcomed. These small interactions accumulate, and over time, they help become culture.
A New Conversation: Joy in the Work
That is why I hope Joy in the Work becomes more than a podcast series. I hope it becomes a conversation.
Throughout the 2026–2027 school year, I look forward to welcoming educators and leaders who can help us explore joy from different perspectives. We will talk about finding it, protecting it, sharing it, and creating conditions where it has room to grow.
Not because education is easy but because education is important, and joy on our school campuses to enhance student learning is essential!
Our school teams doing this work deserve communities where purpose, belonging, gratitude, laughter, faith, hope, and joy are allowed to live alongside the hard things.
Perhaps strengthening school culture does not always begin with another initiative. Sometimes it begins with noticing the person standing in front of us, offering encouragement, expressing gratitude, laughing together, celebrating something good, or simply remembering why we said yes to this work in the first place!
One Question to Carry With You
As you begin this school year, I invite you to consider one question:
How will someone experience joy because they crossed your path today?
It might be a student, a teacher, a parent, a colleague, a school leader, or perhaps someone who simply needs to be reminded that the work they are doing matters.
Those moments may seem small, but small moments, repeated consistently, have a way of becoming culture (Mendez-Hall, 2026).
When we train our eyes to see the good, amazing things happen.
Join the Conversation
Watch Episode 1 of Joy in the Work, Lead with Joy, featuring Dr. Christina Mendez-Hall
You can also follow Sharing the Good with Dr. Denise Ball on YouTube and listen wherever you enjoy your favorite podcasts.
References
Ball, D. M. (2023). Improving teacher retention within Archdiocese of Washington schools [Doctoral dissertation, Liberty University]. Liberty University Scholars Crossing.
Darling-Hammond, L., Fitz, J., Giani, M. V., Gordon, M. F., & Wechsler, M. (2026). The principal effect: How investing in school leaders is key to solving education’s challenges. Learning Policy Institute.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218
The Middle School Culture Blueprint series-Episode 1
One of the unexpected gifts of this season has been the opportunity to gather Catholic educators and leaders from across the nation in meaningful conversation. As Dr. LaTonya White and I continue our work on The Middle School Culture Blueprint, I have been provided a good opportunity to reflect on and be reminded that some of the most powerful professional learning happens when educators come together in fellowship, share what they are seeing in the field, and reflect honestly on what students and teachers need most. There is something deeply hopeful about bringing people together who serve in different schools and dioceses, yet carry the same commitment to helping students feel seen, supported, and loved.
The middle school years are so unique. Students are navigating understanding themselves, belonging, friendship, independence, emotion, peer pressure, and academic growth, often all in the same day. Those who serve middle school students understand that this work requires patience, humor, flexibility, structure, compassion, and joy. It also requires intentionality. What we do at the school level is so important. How we welcome teachers back, how we build routines, how we create opportunities for student voice, how we communicate with families, and how we support one another as teams all help shape the culture students experience.
This is why I am so grateful for the educators and leaders who have said yes to engaging in this conversation. They are not coming together to offer perfect answers. They are coming together to share reflections from the field, practical strategies, lived experience, and wisdom rooted in service. These conversations are supported by the literature that school culture is not built only through programs or plans. It is built in the daily interactions, team meetings, hallway moments, classroom routines, and faithful decisions made by educators who care deeply about the students placed before them.
Pulling educators together to share ideas is, quite honestly, fun. It is also cultivating joy in my own life. To listen to teachers and leaders speak with such love for their students, their colleagues, and Catholic education is a reminder that good is happening every day in our schools.
When we create space for fellowship and conversation, we strengthen one another.
Fellowship reminds us that we are not doing this work alone. It is also a wonderful way to see how much wisdom already exists within the people serving on our campuses and in our diocesan communities.
I hope this work encourages school leaders to create similar spaces on their own campuses. Before the year begins, make time not only for logistics, but also for fellowship and table talk.
Invite teachers to reflect on what students need most. Ask teams what they want students to experience consistently across classrooms. Create room for laughter, honest conversation, prayer, and planning. When educators are given time to connect as people before they plan as professionals, the culture of the school is already being strengthened.
I am grateful to host this important conversation in Episode 1 of Middle School Culture Blueprint: Reflections from the Field: Creating a Positive Start to the 2026–2027 School Year. It is a privilege to welcome Dr. Nancy Baker, Mary Peters, Lynsie Reavis, Karina Lepkowski, and Tricia Florance as we reflect together on practical ways to support middle school teachers, students, families, and leaders. May these conversations continue to help us notice, name, and share the good happening in Catholic education.
You can also listen to these conversations anywhere you enjoy your podcasts.
Middle school students are standing at a unique crossroads. They are navigating growth, identity, friendship, independence, belonging, peer influence, and the desire to be seen and known. For educators and school leaders, this means the beginning of the school year is more than a calendar event. It is an opportunity to intentionally create a culture where students feel safe, supported, challenged, and connected.
In the work Dr. LaTonya White and I are developing through The Middle School Culture Blueprint, we continue to return to the importance of designing culture with purpose, not leaving it to chance. As noted in our framework, middle school culture is strengthened when belonging, clarity, coherence, and formation are intentionally supported across classrooms, teams, and schoolwide systems (Ball & White, 2026).
This work also connects deeply to my earlier research on teacher retention and school climate, which affirmed the importance of communication, collaboration, leadership support, and a positive school climate in helping teachers remain committed to their school communities (Ball, 2023). When middle school teachers feel supported, aligned, and prepared, they are better able to create classroom environments where students can flourish. That is why tuning in to middle school students must also include tuning in to the teachers and teams who serve them each day. How leaders welcome faculty and staff back matters. The rhythm leaders create before students arrive can shape the tone, trust, and energy of the entire school year.
One simple strategy school leaders can use is a Welcome Back Reflection Checklist before the first faculty meeting or middle school team gathering. Before launching into schedules, logistics, and tasks, pause and ask:
Have we created time for fellowship?
Have we provided space for teachers to reconnect as people before they plan as professionals?
Have we built in table talk around what our students need most this year?
Have we clarified the language, routines, and non-negotiables we want students to experience across classrooms?
Have we invited teachers to name what they need in order to begin well?
These questions can help leaders move from information-sharing to culture-building. I invite you to watch or listen on August 5 as I host Middle School Culture Blueprint: Reflections from the Field: Creating a Positive Start to the 2026–2027 School Year. I am honored to welcome Dr. Nancy Baker, Lynsie Reavis, Tricia Florance, Mary Peters, and Karina Lepkowski for a meaningful conversation on this important topic.
May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,
Denise
References Ball, D. M. (2023). Improving teacher retention within Archdiocese of Washington schools [Doctoral dissertation, Liberty University]. Scholars Crossing. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5006/ Ball, D. M., & White, L. (2026). The Middle School Culture Blueprint: Practical Strategies to Support Teachers, Engage Students, and Build Stronger Teams. Manuscript in development.
As we bring our three-part summer series, Belonging, School Culture, and the Joy of the Work, to a close, I find myself filled with gratitude.
I am deeply grateful to Dr. Anita Harkins-Mehsling for generously sharing her research, leadership experience, wisdom, and heart throughout these conversations. Anita helped us pause and consider what it truly means for people to experience belonging within a school community.
Belonging is more than entering a building, attending a meeting, or being included on a faculty list. It is the experience of being seen, known, valued, supported, and connected to something meaningful.
Throughout this series, Anita reminded us that belonging does not happen by accident. It is cultivated through INTENTIONAL leadership, authentic listening, trust, communication, presence, and relationships.
In our first conversation, we explored why belonging matters, and in our second, we reflected on the important role leaders play in creating and sustaining cultures where people feel welcome, heard, and valued. In our final conversation, we connected belonging to joy, teacher retention, school stability, and the overall health of a school community. It felt especially important to end this series with joy.
Joy is not an extra benefit of a healthy school culture. Joy is part of what helps sustain the people who serve within it. Joy is synergistic! Joy does not mean that every day is easy. It does not mean that challenges disappear, difficult conversations are avoided, or the demands of leadership become lighter.
A joyful school community is not a perfect school community.
It is a community where people continue to notice the good, name the good, and carry the good forward together, even during demanding seasons. Joy grows when people know they are not alone. As a school team, exercising the muscle of gratitude can be transformational!
Joy within a school community grows when faculty and staff feel connected to one another and to the school’s mission. It becomes visible when people are encouraged to share their gifts, when contributions are recognized, and when leaders create space for gratitude, celebration, reflection, and genuine connection.
Joy is strengthened when it is shared. This is why I believe joy must be more than something we hope people eventually experience. Joy can become the first step we use in leading others.
Before beginning with the agenda, we can begin by seeing the people in front of us. Before moving immediately to the next task, we can pause to recognize someone’s contribution. Before focusing only on what needs to be corrected, completed, or improved, we can name what is already good and growing. Before assuming the worst, we can choose to see through the eyes of grace. Leading with joy does not ignore reality. It helps us face reality with hope, gratitude, courage, and a renewed sense of purpose.
As leaders prepare for the 2026-27 school year, there will be calendars to finalize, meetings to plan, classrooms to prepare, new employees to welcome, and many decisions to make. Within all of that important work, we can also ask:
How will people experience belonging here? [a leadership opportunity]
How will faculty and staff know they are valued? [essential building block for trust]
How will we listen to one another? [a powerful visual that you are being present]
How will we help new members of the community feel supported? [essential reflection question]
How will we keep joy visible when the year becomes busy? [because it will]
How will we notice and share the good? [my favorite]
The answers do not always require complicated programs or large initiatives. Belonging and joy are often strengthened through small, sincere, and consistent practices.
A handwritten note, a meaningful check-in, or a moment of gratitude at the beginning of a faculty meeting can really help build and maintain a positive school culture.
A celebration of a small victory, or a question asked with genuine care, demonstrates a leader who listens and follows through.
One small practice, offered consistently and sincerely, can become part of the building blocks for a joyful school campus.
My gratitude to Anita for helping us all reflect more deeply on the cultures we are called to build and sustain. I want to thank her for reminding us that belonging is experienced through both our words and our actions. Through this summer series, we are reminded that when people feel seen, known, valued, and connected, joy has room to grow and THRIVE!
As this summer series closes, I hope each of us will carry one invitation into the new school year:
Let joy be the first step. Let it shape how we welcome and guide our listening and communication with others.
May we continue to seek to see the people behind the work.
As school leaders or teachers, let us seek joy and let it help us build communities where educators, students, and families know they belong.
As a sharing the good community, let us continue to train our eyes to see the good, because when we do, amazing things happen.
Stay tuned…
Sharing the Good with Dr. Denise Ball is honored to welcome Dr. Christina Mendez-Hall on August 13 as we continue the conversation about joy, why it is so important, and how leaders and teachers can allow joy to become the first step as they enter the 2026-27 school year.
Sharing the Good with Dr. Denise Ball is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeartRadio.
What began with the simple hope of encouraging at least one person is growing into a space where stories, faith, reflection, research, and practical wisdom can be shared.
I feel deeply honored to help notice and share some of the good happening in our schools, communities, churches, families, and the world.
Thank you to everyone who has listened, subscribed, encouraged me, and prayed for me on this journey. Scan the QR code for your preferred platform and join me as we continue Sharing the Good.
Until then, pause, exhale, reflect, and keep sharing the good.
Summer Series 2026: Belonging, School Culture, and the Joy of the Work
Featuring Dr. Anita Harkins-Mehsling
This adventure in learning new ways to communicate, connect, and share the good in education has been fun, meaningful, and, quite honestly, joyful.
I am so grateful to Dr. Anita Harkins-Mehsling, Associate Superintendent for the Archdiocese of Omaha, for spending time with me in conversation and reflection for the first episode of Summer Series 2026: Belonging, School Culture, and the Joy of the Work on Sharing the Good with Dr. Denise Ball.
Our first conversation focused on a topic that is deeply connected to the heart of education: belonging.
Belonging is more than being present. It is more than being included on a roster, invited into a building, or welcomed into a room. True belonging begins when people do not just enter a space, but feel that they matter within it (Harkins-Mehsling, 2026).
Students need to know they are seen, known, valued, and loved. Teachers need to know their work matters and that they are part of something larger than themselves. Families need to experience school communities as places of trust, welcome, and partnership. Leaders need to be intentional about creating the conditions where acceptance, connection, and community are not accidental, but cultivated.
During this episode, Dr. Harkins-Mehsling and I reflected on how belonging is experienced across school campuses and leadership communities. We discussed the ways people come to understand whether they are accepted, valued, connected, and part of a community. These are not small ideas. They shape the daily experience of school life, and the summer is a perfect time for school leaders and teachers to reflect on how they will create an environment and attitude of belonging for students, parents, and one another for the upcoming school year.
When people feel that they belong, they are more likely to participate, contribute, trust, grow, and remain connected to the mission. Belonging strengthens the culture of a school because it reminds each person: You matter here!
As I continue to reflect on my own research on teacher retention, school climate, leadership, collaboration, and culture, I am reminded, through this conversation with Anita, that positive school culture is not built by chance. It is shaped through intentional leadership, trust, and shared commitment. Belonging is one of the ways we begin that work.
This summer series is an invitation to pause, exhale, reflect, and consider how we can continue to build schools and communities where people feel seen and supported. It is also an invitation to celebrate the joy of the work. Education is hard and holy work. It requires courage, patience, faith, and love. But it also brings great joy when we recognize the good all around us and the reasons we said “yes” to serve in education.
I am thankful for leaders like Dr. Anita Harkins-Mehsling who continue to share wisdom, experience, and encouragement with the broader educational community. Her insights remind us that belonging is not simply a program or initiative but it is a way of being together.
Episode 1 begins this reflective journey.
Episode 2 will air onJuly 6, and our conversation will focus on school culture. Anita and I will share strategies we have learned through our combined 50+ years of serving in education to help create, strengthen, and maintain positive school cultures.
I value feedback and would love to continue the conversation. Please message me or drop a note in the comment section after watching. What helps you feel a sense of belonging in a school or leadership community? What practices have helped strengthen culture in your own setting?
May we continue to seek knowledge in all things, notice the good around us, and build communities where every person knows they matter
Why Fellowship is Essential with Karina Lepkowski, Principal, Most Holy Trinity
Fellowship is more than networking. It is more than collaboration around a project, committee, or a professional learning day. Fellowship is what happens when trust is built over time, shared mission becomes a shared walk, and colleagues become the trusted voices we return to because we know they will listen, encourage, challenge, and help us see more clearly.
Today, I had the joy of meeting with Karina Lepkowski, Principal at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Academy in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Karina and I have been collaborators for 14 years. She served on my team at St. Regis Catholic School, we have worked together on committees, and she has led sessions for professional learning days I developed for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Over the years, our professional paths have crossed in many meaningful ways. But perhaps one of the most treasured parts of our story is this: Karina introduced my son to music and taught him how to play the alto saxophone. His love of jazz and the gift of having music in his heart will last him a lifetime. For that, I will always be grateful to this amazing educator, and I am honored to call her a friend now.
While these accomplishments speak beautifully to Karina’s professional impact, what I value most is the way she leads through relationships. She is the kind of educator and leader who listens deeply, shares generously, and reminds others that the work of Catholic education is strengthened when we walk alongside one another.
As Karina and I caught up and discussed projects we are working on, I was reminded of something important. Educational leaders need trusted voices. We need people who understand the work, who know the heart behind the work, and who can offer honest insight because the relationship is rooted in care. These are the colleagues who help us process ideas, sharpen our thinking, and stay grounded in mission. They remind us that leadership was never meant to be a lonely road.
Research continues to affirm what many of us have experienced in our own leadership journeys. Strong professional learning is collaborative, sustained, and grounded in reflection. Darling-Hammond, Hyler, and Gardner (2017) found that effective professional development creates opportunities for educators to share ideas, collaborate in job-embedded ways, and build communities that can positively influence the culture and instruction of a school or system. Similarly, research on collective teacher culture points to the importance of shared goals, supportive colleagues, collective efficacy, and belonging as important dimensions of a healthy school culture.
This is why fellowship matters. When leaders intentionally build relationships of trust and professional friendship, they strengthen the culture around them. Fellowship helps us become better listeners. It helps us ask better questions. It gives us space to pause, reflect, and renew. It also helps us remember that the work of education is deeply human. Behind every initiative, every professional learning session, every school improvement goal, and every strategic plan are people who need encouragement, connection, and belonging.
In my own research on teacher retention, school climate, leadership, collaboration, and culture emerged as important areas of focus in understanding how educators experience their work and what helps them remain committed to the mission (Ball, 2023). Positive school culture is not built by accident. It is formed through intentional relationships, shared purpose, and the daily decision to walk alongside one another.
As educational leaders, we often spend time developing strategic muscles: planning, decision-making, problem-solving, communication, and execution. These are important. However, I would share that research supports that we also need to be just as intentional about building the muscle of fellowship. Collective teacher culture is strengthened through shared goals and values, collective efficacy, supportive colleagues, belonging, and job satisfaction, all of which remind us that trusted professional relationships are central to healthy school communities (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2021). Who are the trusted voices we call when we need to think out loud? Who helps us see the good when the work feels heavy? Who reminds us of who we are and why this work matters?
The summer weeks offer a beautiful invitation to pause and reach out. Send the text, make the call, or schedule the coffee. Technology offers us the wonderful ability to connect via Zoom, Meet, FaceTime, etc. We really have no excuse not to engage with the technological tools at our fingertips today. I encourage you to reconnect with the colleague who has walked part of the journey with you. Take time to say thank you to the person who helped shape your leadership, your school community, or even your family in ways that will last a lifetime. Gratitude has a way of lowering our stress levels and refocusing our lens to see the good all around us.
When we make time to walk alongside one another, we build the kind of school culture where others can do the same.
This year, my research has continued to center around school culture and team development. In my two latest projects, When We Train Our Eyes to See the Good, Amazing Things Happen and The Middle School Culture Blueprint, which I am co-authoring with Dr. LaTonya White, I have been reflecting deeply on the gift of fellowship and why it matters so much for educational leaders. If you would like to share your thoughts, please send me a message or leave a comment. I welcome the feedback and insights.
Dr. LaTonya White and Dr. Denise Ball, National Catholic Leadership Convention 2026
May we continue to seek knowledge in all things, Denise
References
Ball, D. M. (2023). Improving teacher retention within Archdiocese of Washington schools [Doctoral dissertation, Liberty University]. Liberty University Scholars Crossing.
Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., & Gardner, M. (2017). Effective teacher professional development. Learning Policy Institute.
Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2021). Collective teacher culture: Exploring an elusive construct and its relations with teacher autonomy, belonging, and job satisfaction. Social Psychology of Education, 24, 1389–1406.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2011). New American Bible, Revised Edition.
I was so INSPIRED by my conversation this morning with Dr. Barbara Edmondson. I have known Barbara for almost a decade, and every time I leave her presence, I feel encouraged, reflective, and inspired.
In our conversation, Barbara spoke about the importance of educational leaders knowing their charisms and core beliefs. I could not agree more. When we understand the gifts we have been given and the beliefs that ground us, we are better able to serve with clarity, purpose, and joy.
For many educators and school leaders, the next 9 to 12 weeks offer a beautiful opportunity to pause, exhale, and reflect on the “why” behind our service. Why did we choose this work? What gifts have we been called to share? What core beliefs continue to guide us when the days are long and the work feels heavy? Where did we see joy this year? Where did we help create it for someone else?
These are not small questions, but they are the questions that help us return to purpose.
Joy is not meant to be held alone. Joy is synergistic! When joy is shared among a school team, it strengthens culture, builds connection, and reminds us that the work we do matters. Recent research on teacher teams affirms that creating and sustaining a positive school climate requires ongoing collaborative work and that teachers experience their teams as important support structures connected to shared responsibility, safety, openness, and school climate work (Hammar Chiriac et al., 2024). A joyful school community does not mean a perfect school community. It means a community where people are willing to see the good, name the good, and carry the good forward together.
As we close one school year and begin looking toward the next, perhaps this is an invitation to pause and reflect:
*What are the charisms I bring to this work?
*What core beliefs guide the way I serve?
*Where have I seen goodness unfold this year?
*Who helped me remember the joy of the work?
*Who needs to hear a simple and sincere “thank you”?
To every educator, school leader, staff member, parent, and community partner who continues to serve others: thank you!
Thank you for the seen and unseen ways you show up. Thank you for the encouragement you offer, the patience you practice, the hope you carry, and the light you bring into your school communities.
The work you do matters, and when we train our eyes to see the good, amazing things happen.
Vendor Partner Middle School Mindset Portfolio of Services
The Middle School Mindset Portfolio of Services represents a unique national collaboration between: ADAC | William H. Sadlier | Friendzy | Archangel Education & Technology. An à la carte portfolio of resources.
ADAC, Inc.
ADAC partners with PK–12 schools, systems, and networks nationwide to help educators and leaders confidently meet the needs of every student.
Friendzy, Co.
An effective curriculum that teaches a new generation of students character development skills.
Curriculum Associates
Together with one million educators, we’re connecting every part of learning—from assessment to instruction, data to discovery—to empower classrooms and communities to thrive.
Archangel Education & Technology
Archangel brings a human touch to technology, blending passion, deep expertise, and a strong community focus to enrich educational experiences.
William H. Sadlier
Core and supplemental math programs teach the essentials students will use the rest of their academic and professional lives.
National Standards in Gifted and Talented Education
Standards provide a foundation for the policies, rules, and procedures necessary to deliver high-quality, systematic programs and services for high-ability students. Guidance and framework resources.
Standards and Assessments
Raising academic standards for all students and measuring student achievement to hold schools accountable for educational progress are central strategies for promoting educational excellence and equity in our Nation’s schools.
Odyssey of the Mind
An international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college.
Math Chimps
Great online math games aligned to the Common Core State Standards~for ages 4-16
Team Building and Problem-Solving Strategies for the Classroom
Odyssey of the Mind
An international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college.
Websites with Games and Activities Created by Authors
Oceanhouse Media
Great educational book apps and so much more. Check out often for FREE downloads to help your child learn letters, phonics & math!
Unlock the Teacher 