Starting school: What's the culture?

I observed a teacher once who decided she was going to start the year with " a good positive culture," and so she spent two days reviewing a long list of classroom rules-- this was in the pre-cell phone days, but I am sure, she would have included "put your cell phone in the box on your way in" had she foretold the invention of the devices.

My son came home yesterday with a similar story of of a teacher who was setting the culture of her classroom by reviewing a list of rules. Just as my son's teacher got the the rule about no cell phones, hers rang. Yup, she lost her credibility in an instance and will be taking several months to regain it.

I also decided to start with year with a good positive culture, and I want my class (5th graders is the group I have in mind just now) to be a group that ponders and solves (or attempts to solve) challenging problems. We started class by contemplating things that can be measured and things that can't be measured... as that is our first challenge-- measuring the immeasurable.

Sure, I knew the kids from last year, so much of that work was unnecessary, but I am approaching all of my students as competent and we are just going to work and study and learn about ourselves as we go. That's the culture I want to promote, so that's the culture we are leaping into from the first day.