What do your lesson goals teach students about learning?

In this episode of The Culture Centered Classroom Podcast, Jocelynn explores the hidden power of lesson goals and how traditional objective language can unintentionally center compliance over growth.

Many educators were trained to write goals that begin with “Students will be able to…” While this format aligns with standards and accountability systems, it does not always communicate the deeper purpose of learning.

This episode challenges educators to rethink how goals shape:

• Student identity as thinkers
• Classroom culture
• Perceptions of rigor
• Motivation and engagement
• Belonging and intellectual confidence

Listeners will learn how to move from task based objectives toward goals that reflect identity, agency, and meaning.

The episode also connects goal writing to the AnchorED for Achievement framework, demonstrating how instructional clarity supports agency, reflection, and empowerment.

As part of the ongoing Black History Month reflection, the episode encourages educators to consider how lesson goals help students see history and culture as dynamic, relevant, and connected to their lives.

In this episode:

• Why traditional objective language can unintentionally center compliance
• The difference between task completion and intellectual growth
• How to revise goals to reflect identity and belonging
• Leadership language that supports teachers without adding compliance
• A reframing of rigor through clarity and purpose

Coaching Corner Reflection

As you plan or observe instruction this week, consider:

What will students learn about themselves through this goal?
What will they learn about others?
What will they learn about how knowledge works in the world?

Using the AAA Reflection Framework, ask yourself:

What am I becoming aware of in how I write or review goals?
What am I choosing to accept, challenge, or release?
What is one small shift I can make this week?

Implementation Intention

Use this sentence frame to move toward action:

This week, I will ______ at ______ for ______ in ______.

Small. Specific. Sustainable.

If you or your team would like additional support, contact Jocelynn at: hello@customteachingsolutions.com

What if lesson planning started with who students are becoming, not just what they need to cover?

In this episode of The Culture-Centered Classroom Podcast, Jocelynn introduces three powerful planning questions that help educators design lessons rooted in identity, belonging, and meaning. These questions move instruction beyond compliance and coverage and toward connection, purpose, and deep learning.

Inspired by a conversation with her uncle, a former high school teacher, and grounded in years of coaching educators, Jocelynn reflects on how assumptions about student motivation have shifted over time. She names a hard truth many educators share: as students, they followed rules, avoided trouble, and made it through school without experiencing meaningful learning.

This episode explores why that model no longer works—and why it may never have truly served students in the first place.

Rather than asking students to simply “pay attention and learn,” Jocelynn invites educators to intentionally design lessons that help students understand why learning matters and how it connects to their lives, their communities, and the world around them.

In this episode, you’ll explore:

• Why meaning is essential for engagement and motivation

• How identity and belonging shape students’ relationship to learning

• The difference between compliance and authentic participation

• How instructional choices communicate powerful messages to students

• Why today’s learners need support developing a “why” for learning

The Three Anchor Questions

As you plan lessons, Jocelynn encourages you to return to these guiding questions:

• What will my students learn about themselves?

• What will they learn about their peers?

• What will they learn about the world?

These questions apply across grade levels, content areas, and roles, and they help shift lesson planning from task completion to meaning making.

Coaching Corner Reflection

Pause and reflect using the AAA Reflection Framework:

• What am I becoming aware of in how I plan for meaning?

• What am I choosing to accept, challenge, or release about student motivation?

• What is one small action I am willing to take next?

Implementation Intention

Use this sentence frame to turn reflection into action:

This week, I will ______ at ______ for ______ in ______.

Small, specific steps create sustainable change.

Closing Thought

Students do not disengage because learning is hard.
They disengage when learning feels disconnected, unsafe, or meaningless.

When educators plan with identity, belonging, and meaning in mind, classrooms become places where students are invited to think, reflect, and grow—not just comply.

What if classroom culture isn’t something you set at the beginning of the year—but something you create every single day through instruction?

In this opening episode of Season 7 of The Culture-Centered Classroom Podcast, Jocelynn reframes a powerful idea many educators already feel to be true: culture is a vibe—and instruction plays a major role in shaping it.

This episode invites teachers, coaches, and school leaders to move beyond thinking of culture as just norms, relationships, or classroom climate, and instead consider how daily instructional decisions communicate belonging, expectations, and value.

Whether you’re in your first year of teaching or your twentieth, this conversation offers a grounding reminder: students learn just as much from how we teach as from what we teach.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL EXPLORE:

• Why classroom culture is not separate from instruction, but built through it

• How students experience culture through tasks, questions, pacing, and feedback

• The connection between instructional design and student identity, belonging, and confidence

• Why culture is not a checklist, but something students feel

• How small instructional shifts can create big cultural impact

This episode introduces a reflective pause designed to help educators turn insight into action.

COACHING CORNER:

Instructional Anchor Questions

• What will students learn about themselves through this lesson?

• What will they learn about their peers?

• What will they learn about the world?

AAA Reflection

• What am I becoming aware of in my instructional practice?

• What am I choosing to accept, challenge, or release?

• What is one small action I’m willing to take next?

You’ll also be guided to create a simple implementation intention—a small, specific step you can take this week to intentionally shape classroom culture through instruction.

RESOURCES:

To support the ideas shared in this episode, Jocelynn references tools that help educators better understand students and design instruction with intention:

• Student Data Dive – A reflective tool for getting to know students beyond the numbers

• Student Learning Perspective – A planning guide that centers how students experience learning

Links to these resources:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/custom-teaching-solutions

FINAL THOUGHT:

Classroom culture isn’t just what we say we value, it’s what students experience through instruction, every day.

🎧 Listen in, reflect deeply, and consider how your teaching helps create the vibe your students feel.

Until next time, seek joy, affirm culture, celebrate diversity, center equity, and strive for liberation through learning every single day.

This episode marks the season finale of The Culture-Centered Classroom and the closing chapter of The Culture of Celebration mini-series.

Rather than ending with urgency or resolution-setting, this final episode invites listeners into pause, reflection, and intentional becoming. Jocelynn shares her long-standing practice of choosing a guiding word or phrase for the year ahead — not as a productivity tool, but as an act of care, cultural awareness, and self-honoring.

This is a gentle landing place. A moment to look back at what has shaped us, name what we are releasing, and choose how we want to move forward — personally, professionally, and collectively.

Why a guiding word is different from a resolution

Jocelynn reframes focus words as reminders rather than goals — a way to return to values, care, and clarity when things feel loud, rushed, or cattywampus.

The meaning behind “Trust the Becoming through Pause and Surrender”

This episode unpacks how pause creates space for reflection, surrender releases the illusion of control, and becoming reminds us that growth is always ongoing — for students, educators, classrooms, and systems.

How culture, community, and care shape who we’re becoming

Becoming is never neutral or individualistic. Our identities, lived experiences, histories, and communities all influence what we believe is possible for ourselves and our students.

A simplified Focus Word process for educators

Aligned with Jocelynn’s RLI Framework (Reflect, Learn, Implement) and the AnchorED for Achievement principles, this revised approach supports educators in choosing a word that acts as both a mirror and a map for the year ahead.

A student-centered version of the practice

You’ll hear how to guide students in choosing their own word — empowering them to reflect on growth, claim agency, and name who they are becoming within a learning community.

Becoming as celebration

Choosing a word is framed as a celebratory act — one that honors where we’ve been, what has shaped us, and who we are becoming. This moment intentionally circles back to the series themes of celebration, cultural competence, joy, and belonging.

A grounding quote on becoming

The episode is anchored by a reflection from Michelle Obama’s Becoming:
“Becoming is not about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim.”

A guided pause to close the seasonListeners are invited into a quiet moment of breath, reflection, and surrender — a gentle transition into the next season of life and learning.

Reflection Questions for Listeners

• What word or phrase feels grounding for this season of my life or work?

• What am I being invited to pause, release, or surrender?

• How has my culture, community, and lived experience shaped who I am becoming?

• How might a guiding word support my teaching, leadership, or rest in the year ahead?

• How can I invite students to reflect on and celebrate their own becoming?

Student Demographics Are Not Their Mathematical Destiny

In this episode of The Culture Centered Classroom, Jocelynn is joined by Juliana Tapper, M.Ed., founder of CollaboratEd Consulting, to discuss her book
Teaching 6–12 Math Intervention: A Practical Framework To Engage Students Who Struggle.

This conversation is grounded in the powerful, practical framework Juliana shares in her book—a framework designed to help educators support students who are working below grade level without deficit thinking, lowered expectations, or exclusionary practices.

One of the most resonant ideas from the book, and from this conversation, is this truth: Student demographics are not their mathematical destiny.

Throughout the episode, Juliana explains how her framework helps teachers become gatebreakers—educators who actively disrupt inequitable systems, expand access to rigorous learning, and design math classrooms that are equity-centered, culturally relevant, and humanizing.

In this episode, we explore:

• The core principles of Juliana’s math intervention framework

• Why traditional intervention models often reinforce inequity

• How teacher beliefs and instructional decisions shape access and opportunity

• What it means to teach math in ways that honor students’ identities and lived experiences

• How educators can move from compliance-driven intervention to meaningful engagement

The conversation also connects Juliana’s work to The New Teacher Project’s article, The Opportunity Myth, highlighting how students are too often denied access to grade-level tasks and rich instruction. Jocelynn and Juliana further ground the discussion in Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality, reminding listeners that students experience math classrooms through multiple, overlapping identities.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Teaching 6–12 Math Intervention: A Practical Framework To Engage Students Who Struggle
  https://www.collaboratedwithjuliana.com/buy
  https://gatebreakerbook.com

• Juliana Tapper’s Masterclass
  https://www.collaboratedwithjuliana.com/masterclass2

• The Opportunity Myth by The New Teacher Project

This episode is an invitation to rethink math intervention—not as remediation, but as an equity practice. If you’re ready to challenge assumptions, expand opportunity, and become a gatebreaker for your students, this conversation—and Juliana’s book—are a powerful place to begin.

The Culture of Celebration Series

As the winter season unfolds, many classrooms begin to feel a little cattywampus. Schedules shift, energy runs high, budgets feel tight, and the pressure to “make it magical” can quickly become overwhelming.

In this episode of The Culture Centered Classroom, Jocelynn introduces The Joy Budget a reframe that reminds educators that the most meaningful celebrations do not require money, elaborate plans, or Pinterest worthy perfection. Instead, they are built on connection, care, cultural competence, and co creation.

This episode builds directly on the first three episodes of the series, offering practical, zero cost strategies for honoring diverse traditions, sustaining joy, and strengthening classroom community during the winter months.

In This Episode You Will Explore

Why celebration does not need a financial budget

Jocelynn reframes celebration as a practice rooted in relationship rather than resources, emphasizing that connection is the true currency of joy.

How cultural competence guides winter celebrations

This episode revisits the idea that culture is not decoration and that honoring diverse observances requires intention, humility, and care rather than surface level activities.

The power of co creation during the holiday seasonBy inviting students into planning and decision making, educators reduce their own workload while honoring student agency and belonging.Zero cost celebration ideas aligned with the AnchorED for Achievement framework

You will hear practical examples including

1. Co creation audits
2. The Global Light Share
3. Affirmation artifacts
4. Celebration dance breaks
5. Community norms reflection circles

Each idea is grounded in agency, empowerment, community, hope, and reflection.

Why joy is a strategic practice not a seasonal event

Jocelynn connects these practices to long term culture building, showing how intentional celebration strengthens equity, belonging, and emotional safety.

Reflection Questions for Educators

• What does celebration currently cost me in time, energy, or stress

• How can I shift from planning for students to co creating with them

• Which traditions or celebrations feel meaningful in my classroom and which feel performative

• How does cultural competence influence the way I approach winter celebrations

• What joyful practices should carry beyond this season and into everyday classroom life

Resources Mentioned

• Back to School Series Freebie Lesson 1 from The First 10 Days Building Classroom Belonging customteachingsolutions.com/btsfree

• Focus Word Reflection Kit Available in the Virtual Learning Library and on Teachers Pay Teachers

In this episode of The Culture-Centered Classroom, we explore one of the most essential and misunderstood aspects of culturally responsive practice: the difference between celebrating culture and appropriating it.

Building on Episodes 1 and 2, Jocelynn offers a grounded, compassionate, and culturally competent look at what happens when celebration intersects with identity, history, and lived experience—especially during the diverse and emotionally charged winter season.

This episode is not about shame, it’s about clarity, courage, care, and cultural competence.What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

The Clear Distinction Between Appreciation and Appropriation

Jocelynn breaks down the difference through the lens of intent vs. impact, emphasizing that cultural celebration without context or permission can unintentionally cause harm—even when well-intentioned.

Why Cultural Competence Must Guide Celebration

You’ll learn four truths cultural competence teaches us:

1. Culture is not decoration

2. Traditions carry emotional and historical weight

3. Symbols have context and meaning

4. Practices emerge from lived experience—not Pinterest boards

These truths help prevent “performing diversity” and instead foster authentic cultural appreciation.

A Real-World Example: Florida State Seminoles FootballJocelynn uses the Florida State Seminoles as a concrete case study of how permission, relationship, and collaboration create a model for cultural appreciation rather than appropriation.
This example helps educators understand the importance of community consent, not assumption.

Why We Must Avoid the “Single Story” TrapDrawing on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s powerful TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story, Jocelynn explains how incomplete narratives shape misunderstanding, bias, and cultural harm.
This example reinforces the need for multiple voices, not stereotypes or oversimplified representations.

A Simple 3-Step Guide for Culturally Respectful CelebrationAligned with the AnchorED for Achievement framework, Jocelynn shares a practical, actionable method:

1. Reflect — examine assumptions, intentions, and classroom norms

2. Learn — seek authentic sources, voices, and historical context

3. Implement — co-create celebrations with students and families

This guide helps you celebrate culture with confidence—not fear.

Reflection Questions for Educators

• What assumptions do I bring into cultural celebrations?

• Whose voice is centered? Whose voice is missing?

• Is this cultural element being used with permission, understanding, and respect?

• How does this celebration deepen belonging for all students?

• How can I create space for students to share (or not share) their traditions with agency?

Resources Mentioned

• TED Talk: The Danger of a Single Story – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Back-to-School Series Freebie: Lesson 1 + activities
  👉 customteachingsolutions.com/btsfree

• Focus Word Reflection Kit – available in the Virtual Learning Library and TPT store

The Culture of Celebration Series

In this second episode of The Culture of Celebration, Jocelynn explores how meaningful, equity-centered celebration goes far beyond seasonal holidays and big events.
Real celebration—the kind that builds trust, belonging, and resilience—lives in the micro-moments we notice, honor, and name every single day.

As students and educators navigate the emotional highs and lows of the winter season, this episode offers a compassionate, culturally responsive reframing of what it truly means to celebrate one another in ways that feel safe, affirming, and authentically human.

This conversation is a continuation of the work we began in Episode 1 and beautifully connects back to your Back-to-School series, “The First 10 Days: Building Classroom Belonging.” It’s the perfect mid-year reminder that the roots you planted in August need care, water, and attention in November and December.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

Why the holiday season requires deeper care and cultural responsiveness

Jocelynn highlights how disrupted routines, varied cultural traditions, and heightened emotions make micro-celebrations especially powerful in November and December.

What micro-celebrations actually are—and why they matter

Discover how tiny, intentional acts of noticing effort, growth, and courage strengthen classroom culture far more than large events or public ceremonies.

How cultural competence shapes our understanding of celebration

We often assume students want to be celebrated the way we prefer to be celebrated. Jocelynn challenges that lens and offers strategies for honoring cultural variation with humility and intention.

The essential role of the AnchorED for Achievement and AAA Frameworks

Learn how micro-celebrations reinforce Agency, Empowerment, Community, Hope, Opportunity, and Awareness—core components of your instructional and relational practice.

Why this is the perfect time to revisit your Back-to-School work

Jocelynn invites educators to reflect on everything learned during The First 10 Days: Building Classroom Belonging—identity, voice, norms, storytelling—and use those insights to shape mid-year celebrations with greater care and nuance.

Download the free Day 1 lesson & activities at: customteachingsolutions.com/btsfree

How administrators can support teachers through micro-celebrations

School leaders receive specific, actionable ideas for recognizing the adults who hold the emotional and community labor of the school.

Practical, ready-to-use micro-celebration routines

Try Joy Journals, “We Noticed” boards, one-word celebrations, shout-out postcards, or 30-second video affirmations—simple ideas teachers can implement tomorrow.

Reflective Questions for Educators

1. What small moments did I notice today that are worth celebrating?

2. Which students thrive with public affirmation—and which prefer quiet celebration?

3. How do my own cultural experiences shape the way I define “care” and “celebration”?

4. What norms around celebration did we build in August? Do they still serve us now?

5. How can micro-celebrations help stabilize or strengthen our classroom culture this season?

Related Resources

• Back-to-School Lesson 1 Freebie: customteachingsolutions.com/btsfree

• Focus Word Reflection Kit for culturally responsive year-end reflection (Virtual Learning Library + TPT)

Connect with Jocelynn

• Instagram: @iteachcustom

• LinkedIn: Jocelynn Hubbard

• Website: customteachingsolutions.com