Every morning at MS 137, there’s music and dancing outside teacher Laeticia Charles’ English classroom. Disney songs like “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” and seasonal classics, such as holiday music in December, are part of the hallway’s soundtrack.

“I want to make my students feel welcome,” explained Charles, a second-year teacher at the middle school in Ozone Park, Queens. While she looked up to her mother, an elementary school educator, Charles was ultimately inspired to teach adolescents because of the warm, welcoming environment cultivated by one of her former teachers, a Mr. Patrick, at Hillcrest HS in Queens.

“I always thought I’d teach early childhood,” said Charles. “But in high school, seeing the way Mr. Patrick gathered the students and built a little community made me think someday I could make a difference in a student’s life.”

Peter Carriere, the UFT leader at MS 137, says Charles has succeeded.

“It amazes me the number of students she’s able to connect with,” he said. “She’s on top of the academics, but it’s important to build connections.”

Charles’ tool kit for building emotional safety in her classroom is broader than providing a lively soundtrack. She welcomes students to her classroom for lunch and models gentle jokes in her conversations with colleagues and students, all of which helps create a relaxed, social atmosphere in her classroom.

Charles also takes a more structured social-emotional approach.

For example, since she was a student teacher at MS 137, Charles has led an extracurricular dance group, helping students create salsa, step and hip-hop dances for the school's annual cultural festival. She opens each rehearsal with an emotional check-in. She has students share an emotion they are feeling, give one another compliments or reflect on a positive word, like "blossom," written on a whiteboard. Charles’ dancers appreciate these activities so much that the students will arrange themselves in a circle and begin their check-in before Charles arrives.

“If you’re not feeling well, you can’t perform well,” Charles explained, and the short “circle time” allows her students a reset that helps them to focus.

Charles’ emphasis on emotional literacy extends to her one-on-one interactions with students, too. She recalled one student at the beginning of the school year who would frequently become overwhelmed with her work and cry during class. “I had to stop and think, 'As a middle schooler, if I were in her shoes, what would I want someone to do?'” Charles said. She shared with the student that, as a teacher, she also sometimes gets overwhelmed and cries. Then, she worked with the student on filling out a journal every day to track emotions and organize work.

“Three months later, she told me, 'I feel so much better now,'" Charles said of the student. “She started doing better in class. In her writing, you can see the difference in her confidence.”

Recalling her own experience with teachers who made her feel safe, Charles said she always "wanted to be that person to someone. I’m really grateful."