A practical guide to the ins and outs of building, maintaining, and restoring positive and productive relationships in schools.

Relationships are at the core of education. When teachers are intentional about all of their relationships, they can address burnout, increase their own effectiveness, and improve the learning environment for their students.

In this thoughtful book, educators Michael Creekmore and Nita Creekmore introduce the build, maintain, and restore approach to relationships, focusing on six key types of relationships that K–12 teachers need to navigate in a school:* Teacher-to-self, highlighting the importance of self-care to ensure mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
* Teacher-to-student, focusing on how strong student-teacher relationships can change the trajectory of a student's path.
* Teacher-to-family, showing how a teacher's relationship with a student's family is essential to the student's school experience.
* Teacher-to-teacher, addressing the critical and complex nature of relationships between teachers in teams.
* Teacher-to-administrator, emphasizing the need for authentic relationships with those who are charged with observing and guiding teachers' growth in the profession.
* Teacher-to-staff, discussing the value of relationships with support staff and ways these relationships can be built.

Each chapter includes helpful guidance, tools, reflective questions, and ways you can build, maintain, and restore your relationships. Every Connection Matters will help you improve your daily connections and interactions at school—both in person and virtually—to build, maintain, and restore meaningful relationships that make a difference for you and your students.