Back-to-School Series | Episode 3: The Relationship-Building Toolkit Every Classroom Needs

Every teacher has met someone like this: the colleague who somehow gets kids to behave, gets the whole staff on the same page, and makes it look effortless. In Part 3 of our Back to School Series, Dr. Ilana Nankin sits down with Beth Schreiber to name exactly what that “effortless” thing actually is, and to prove it’s learnable. “It’s not magic,” Beth says of the skill that took her from a depleted classroom teacher to her district’s Director of Curriculum. “I just happened to have a very big toolkit.” This conversation hands that toolkit over.

Ilana and Beth spend the full episode inside one layer of the Human Intelligence Framework, relational intelligence, and its five competencies: interpersonal awareness, empathy, repair, belonging, and connection. Paired with each one are practices educators can use starting the first week of school: reading a room through Word Watcher, Cue Detective, and Vibe Tracker; building real empathy through mindful listening; resolving conflict without blame through the four-step Peace Process; and creating belonging through Community Agreements, All About Me, and Equitable Sharing. Along the way, the two hosts turn the practices on each other, including an unscripted moment that catches them both off guard, and says as much about their friendship as it does about the practice itself.

In Part 1 of our Back to School Series, we talked about why your well-being has to come before everything else this year. In Part 2, Dr. Ilana Nankin and Sam Levine handed you a fast, hands-on toolkit across the full Human Intelligence framework. In Part 3, Dr. Ilana Nankin and Beth Schreiber go deep on the layer that makes every other practice possible: relationships.

Here are some of the best moments from the episode:

• Back to School Series: The Power of Community Building
• Breathe for Change Human Intelligence Framework
• Competency 1: Interpersonal Awareness
• Competency 2: Empathy & Mindful Listening
• Competency 3: Repair & The Peace Process
• Competency 4: Cultivating Belonging
• Competency 5: Fostering Human Connection
• Appreciation Circles

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