While many teachers are off for another month (unless you are teaching summer school), I know that school leaders have already started planning back-to-school professional learning, so I wanted to share some community building and relationship building ideas. In the tweet above, I love the idea shared by @HeatherL114 about giving teachers time to set up their classrooms and then give them time to visit one another's classrooms to give compliments, get ideas, and connect with other teachers. To do this well, teachers would need sufficient time to set up their rooms so that it doesn't feel stressful. This article shares great research about classroom design and environment. Also, I would love to add a component of having each teacher talk about any spaces in their room that is not filled and how students will contribute to those spaces. I love when teachers are intentional about ways that students can contribute to making the classroom beautiful and engaging by adding their art and writing. 

If you are looking for more community building ideas, here are some of my favorites: 

• "Community building activities and random grouping strategies" from Elena Aguilar
• Icebreakers that aren't too silly 
• Coming in August newsletter - back-to-school staff circle plan and back-to-school student circle plan 

Here are some of my favorite videos about restorative practices! Let me know if you have additional recommendations to add to the list. This is a living document, so I will keep adding videos. 

I love the Gender Inclusive Schools post above about "Donuts with Grownups" that can make our schools so much more welcoming to all caregivers and families. 

Sarae Decoster-Pacetta recommended the amazing resources on the Gender Spectrum website, which includes resources for educators, for families, and for youth. 

I also love these "Welcoming Schools" resources from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). They have a great booklist for middle school and one for high school. They also have great lesson plans and resources for Kindergarten through 3rd grade. 

I shared several ideas about how to support gender inclusivity and diversity in my newsletter last October, so check those out as you begin to think about this school year. 

I started teaching in 1997 and have been leading and coaching since 2006, and I always had this feeling of "why aren't we all sharing our work and resources more in education?" My goal with this newsletter is to share ideas and resources that support us in supporting our students and colleagues. I love receiving emails like the one above - because this is exactly my goal: for the newsletters to be "a source of inspiration and comfort, ideas for personal and professional growth, and practical resources." You can find all of the past newsletters here. I encourage you to share my newsletters with any teachers, leaders, social workers, and other staff who might enjoy them. You are also welcome to share anything with me that you think could support others. We are in this together, and you are not alone.