Hello, Hello, Hello, Teacher Visionary!
I’m Zenani, a relationship coach…for secondary classrooms.
Wait, what? What in the heck is a classroom relationship coach?
Well, okay, if we want to get all fancy-shmancy and technical about it, I am a Restorative Practices educator, coach and trainer who helps secondary teachers restore their aspirations for teaching and learning by shifting the paradigm from adult-directed classroom management to student-practicing self management.
See? That was a mouthful.
A love letter to your vision
But seriously:
Do you remember when you were that shiny, brand new teacher who dreamt sweet, sweet dreams of answering your calling and educating young minds?
Now it’s been five months…or five years…maybe even 15 years. Feels like 50 years since you even allowed yourself to envision what you wanted for yourself and your students. You spend so much of your time and energy either putting out fires in the classroom (hopefully, not literally!) or stressing about the fires that you’ll likely have to put out tomorrow that your teaching and learning aspirations have gotten lost in the soot and debris.
Where’d those aspirations go?
Are they tucked inside the pocket of the binder from the last classroom management/student discipline PD workshop you attended? (Hmmm, was that binder blue, white or…?)
Are they crumpled beneath those papers that still need grading?
Or maybe they’re in that Google drive folder labeled, “ADD” for Another Dream Deferred?
And wait: Does this mean that you’re not only a professional classroom manager but a firefighter, too?
You are a leader
In case no one has told you lately, Teacher Visionary, you are a leader and you have a right to live out your teaching and learning vision with your students. And you don’t even have to do it perfectly. You just need to be willing, consistent and intentional. Okay, and also sit in circles with your students.
When the responsibility for 10, 18, 32 –whatever class size of attitudes, emotions, moods and behaviors you’re teaching– falls solely on you, the vision and the heart that you possess for teaching; the fulfillment that you deserve, can get lost in eruptions that lead to:
- frustration and lost instructional time
- power struggles that lead to fear, anxiety, resentment and referrals
- disengaged teaching and learning
In the meantime, your students don’t have to carry any weight of accountability for their personal and academic behaviors. Instead, they are purportedly controlled with “consequences” and other punitive measures. Relationships rupture and little is learned.
I’m here to help
Long before I left the classroom, I knew that I wanted to support other teachers whose visions had been obscured by managing attitudes, emotions, moods and behaviors almost all day, everyday. I wanted to help secondary educators restore CALM (my framework for effective teaching and equitable and engaged learning.) by getting out of the classroom management game and creating opportunities for students to practice managing themselves.