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.
May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,
Denise
Unlock the Teacher 