🌿 Your Tuesday Email: Renew Your Relationships

Hello Reader!

The relationships you've built this year are the work.

By April, it's easy to see your classroom or school through a lens of what hasn't happened yet.

The standards not yet mastered. The goals not quite reached. The systems still imperfect.

But here's what that lens misses entirely: the relationships you've built since September are not a backdrop to the work, they are the work.

April is the right time to return to them.

Why Relationships Drift

Relationships with students, families, and colleagues don't break dramatically in most schools. The drift is quiet and gradual as the year moves on.

The check-ins get shorter. The personal conversations disappear. The informal moments that build trust get squeezed out by everything that feels more urgent.

By mid-spring, many educators realize they've been moving so fast they've stopped truly seeing the people in front of them.

That's not negligence. That's pace and the pace can be adjusted.

Micro-Moments of Reconnection

Renewing relationships doesn't require restructuring your schedule.

It requires micro-moments are small, intentional acts of attention:

Using a student's name in a way that signals you see them specifically
A 90-second hallway conversation with a colleague you've been meaning to check on
A brief, genuine note home that isn't about behavior or grades
Asking your team, "How are you actually doing?" and waiting for a real answer

These moments compound. Over the final weeks of a school year, they determine whether students and colleagues finish feeling connected or invisible.

A Question Worth Sitting With

Which relationship in your school, whether student, colleague, or family, would most benefit from one intentional moment of attention this week?

Pick only one.

Podcast:

This week: Unpopular Opinions Part 2. We keep our unpopular opinions rolling with a hard line on what counts as real intervention, a critique of rigid pacing guides, and a push for repair after conflict instead of removal without follow-up. We argue for qualified support where it matters most and for classroom systems that protect both joy and high expectations.
Next week: Clarity-Driven School Leadership with Casey Watts
Last week: Unpopluar Opinions in Education! Part 1.

Thank you to our listeners! You've helped us reach over 5000 downloads! Listen to the pod on all the platforms like Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio and YouTube. Now you can follow us on Instagram.

Resources:

Stuart Brown, Play — on the neuroscience of joy and connection in learning environments
Edutopia article: "The Power of Teacher-Student Relationships in the Final Quarter"

Coming Up :

Josephine will be presenting at several conferences in New Jersey:
- The Power of Play: Remixing Learning Through Inclusive,Healing-Centered Joyful Classrooms: April 25, 2026; NJEA PDII Conference:Transform: Princeton, NJ
NEW! Coaches Circle. Your response to our poll showed you wanted a Coach's Circle, so we have spots open for a 4-week small-group experience for coaches to reflect on coaching their teachers this year, and to discuss finishing the year with clarity and intention. Space is limited. Starts April 30th. Register here.

Tammy will be presenting at:
- Engage Learning Conference, June 9-10 in Birmingham, AL - Edit to Elevate: Simplifying School Leadership for Lasting Impact
- Learning Forward Texas, June 16-17 in the Dallas area - Edit to Elevate: Simplifying School Leadership for Lasting Impact
- MEMSPA Summer Institute, July 27-28 in Muskegon
  - Opening keynote- Edit to Elevate: Creating Space for What Really Matters
  - Breakout session - Make the Edit: Your Leadership Edit in Action
In July, we are excited to have our summer workshops hosted at Bornblum Jewish Community School in Memphis again! This year, we are running two workshops simultaneously on July 21-22. Anyone is welcome to register!
- Ready, Set, Teach for newer teachers - Participants will also receive one of our card decks! Information and registration here.
- NEW: Effective Learning Environments for school leaders and their teams. Information and registration here.

The relationships you've invested in all year deserve a strong finish. If you want support leading with relational clarity, whether you're a classroom teacher or a school leader, we have limited coaching availability in April. These spots exist for educators who are ready to stop surviving the end of the year and start finishing it with purpose. Don't let the final stretch undo what you've spent a whole year building.

The people in your building are worth showing up for. And so are you.