Every Connection Matters: How to Build, Maintain, and Restore Relationships Inside the Classroom and Out

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.

Michael Creekmore is a licensed professional counselor with more than 15 years of experience and a certified professional counselor supervisor, working as a professional school counselor, freelance writer, public speaker, and voiceover artist. Michael and his wife, Nita, own Creekmore Conversations, where they collaborate with schools to cultivate strategies to build, maintain, and restore relationships.

Michael earned his bachelor's degree in experimental psychology from the University of South Carolina and his master's degree in counseling psychology from Clark Atlanta University. He has also served as clinical director and clinical supervisor to community mental health programs and has been an independent consultant for the past 15 years.

Nita (E'Manita) Creekmore is an instructional coach, presenter, writer, and inclusive literacy advocate. Nita and her husband, Michael, own Creekmore Conversations, where they collaborate with schools to cultivate strategies to build, maintain, and restore relationships. She was in public education for 18 years, teaching elementary grades for 13 years before becoming an elementary school instructional coach.

Nita obtained her bachelor's degree in English and master's degree in elementary education from the University of South Carolina. She also received her educational specialist degree in educational leadership from the University of Virginia. She is passionate about being an advocate and thought partner for teachers to help them give students what they need.