By mid-year, the energy of the new school year can feel like a distant memory, leaving students, educators, and administrators disconnected and drained. But this season also offers the perfect opportunity to reignite a sense of belonging and rebuild the connections that sustain us all.
Today we have the third episode of our three-part series, "New Year's Energy for Midwinter Teaching" with Arlène Casimir. In this episode, Arlène shares her insights on how creating a sense of connection, creativity, and compassion can transform educational spaces, not just for students, but for teachers and school leaders as well. She offers practical advice for building environments where everyone feels acknowledged, understood, and appreciated. Arlène begins by reminding us that belonging is the foundation for thriving classrooms, authentic leadership, and a vibrant school community.
Transcript
Arlène Casimir:
Belonging is so important because it fuels connection, compassion, and creativity. And when it's missing, people feel alienated and isolated. They feel a lack of empathy for others, and they also feel stagnant and unable to use their creativity to find solutions. When we don't see or feel belonging in the climate of an educational space, there's disengagement, there's resistance, and there's a lack of authenticity. And what that means is you'll always find the meeting after the meeting where people are gathering in cliques and little cohorts to share their frustrations. And we'll even see that with children on the playground. Right? And when we recognize how powerful belonging is, and we could see this word as synonymous with inclusion, as synonymous with equity. When we see belonging present, it's the first step to co-creating spaces where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.
Edie:
Let's get into how educators, or in your experience, how you've seen how you have co-created spaces with students where this being seen valued is present.
Arlène:
Yeah. I think it's so important, especially mid-year, like restarting mid-year, asking students what they need to feel heard, to feel seen, to feel safe, to feel supported, asking them what kinds of things that are happening in the world that they would like to talk about. Asking students what kinds of rituals we could co-create, like storytelling circles, daily check-ins, feedback after lessons that they can give, whether it's through a quick survey 'cause everyone's on computers now, or through a quick note that they leave for you, what kind of collaborative projects that could really amplify their voices. It's showing people that their voice matters, that what's on their mind matters. And you know what?
Even if someone's in a negative space, I love the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. He says, "You show people love by listening to their suffering." So even holding space for someone to share discontent could create a feeling of belonging for them because they're not silenced. They're heard. And oftentimes that anger comes from a place of not being heard, of often feeling silenced. And that could happen by saying like good vibes only here, or we just want everyone to be positive, where sometimes you do have to voice what makes you upset to get to a place of what would make you content, and you can do that in community with people.
Edie:
And just to pull on the sort of thread that is running throughout this series, sometimes teachers might work to provide this sense of belonging, but maybe aren't feeling it themselves. And what's the importance of working on that aspect for the self?
Arlène:
I think it first starts with the recognition that it's incredibly hard to give what you don't have. And recognizing that in the same way that your students are worthy of belonging, a place where they feel seen, heard, supported, and understood that you deserve that too. And even if it's not in your school building the way that you are trying to co-create it with them in your classroom, then it could be seeking community outside of your school or taking time to reconnect with your passion and purpose and finding community there, or examining what kind of boundaries can I set to create my own sense of belonging within this space. So I think it goes back to authenticity, which will create that alignment. Right? Like what do I need? Being honest with yourself, what do I really need? And how do I want to show up for myself, which then tells you how others need to show up for you.
Edie:
I'd love to talk a little bit about administrators specifically when they're just putting out fires daily, but how it is important at the administrator level to take those steps to rediscover joy and belonging.
Arlène:
Yeah. I think that it's so important for administrators to have a sense of belonging because oftentimes administrators are so isolated. We do all of this work to support teachers and create professional development opportunities and different committees that teachers can be a part of. And sure, principals can have mentors, but oftentimes they are the leaders in a school building or in a district and find themselves in an overwhelmingly reactive position. And what I mean by that is like putting out fires, dealing with staff shortages, dealing with disciplinary issues, urgent parent concerns, navigating systemic inequities. They're constantly putting out fires. And this high stakes, high pressure environment leaves little room for reflection. It leaves little room for connection and creativity. So I think prioritizing those three things, reflection, connection, and creativity, which are the essential elements for joy and belonging on an administrative level, requires intentionality. And it really is a matter of prioritization because it doesn't ever feel like there's enough time in the day. Right? Because here's the thing, when administrators are operating solely in that crisis mode, they risk losing sight of their larger vision for their school community. Right?
So why am I doing this every day to begin with? Like what is this school about? What are our values? Wait. What's happening here? They risk burnout. So that will create a sense of just disengagement in the work. And the biggest risk is failing to model the kind of care and connection they hope to see among students and staff. Like how powerful is it to see the principal of your school take care of his or herself? So we could think about that. How can we prioritize connection over perfection? Because there's so much put on leaders, and it's easy to feel like the school will fall apart without constant intervention, right, but trust and delegation are really vital for educators, for leaders. Taking even five minutes a day to connect with staff. Like I remember a principal I really, really admired, the first principal where I worked, he would take every morning and every afternoon to go through the building and check on every teacher. How are you? How was your evening? Every class.
And that small practice, it took him 10 minutes a day, but it made a world of a difference in the climate and culture of the school. So those small intentions and small ways can make a huge difference, like walking through classrooms, not just to monitor, to also appreciate learning moments, like hosting those informal chats and morning circles to check with staff beyond their to-do list, just being intentional about community. Why am I the person to do it? Because I can be for kids in many other ways, but why am I choosing to lead teachers? Beyond that, it's going to be really helpful for leaders to schedule small joys daily, like celebrating really small wins each day, whether that's in a memo, a quick email, or in announcement over the loudspeaker. What are we focusing on? If we're prioritizing belonging, where are we seeing those snippets of people supporting each other?
Edie:
You talked a little bit about islands versus oasis, and for a teacher who is, or an educator who's at the mid-year point and feeling on an island, what are your thoughts for maybe this educator right now in this moment?
Arlène:
I would say to anchor yourself in your intentions and to recognize that as educators, we get pulled in so many different directions that we could lose intentionality. And it's so important to create systems that align with our values. Where am I with how I am aligned or not aligned to my values? Something simple as using time blocking to prioritize not just those urgent items, but also the initiatives that reflect the vision that you have for your work for that belonging and joy. And I also think it's so important to create opportunities for reflection. Sometimes that could feel like a luxury.
Like who has time for that to sit and reflect? But it's a way to regulate your nervous system to do that kind of work. And it's so important to prioritize intentionality, reflection, and connection. If anyone can walk away with three things, it's prioritize your intentions, reflect on where you are with them, and who can you connect with to help you realize those intentions? Because by prioritizing our intentions, we're able to recognize what we need and what we value. By reflecting, we can ask ourselves where we are, like what feelings are coming up? Do we feel satisfied? Do we feel angry? Do we feel overwhelmed? And then by creating connection, we could get into community and heal and realign to what matters most to us. So I would say that my advice would be that for educators at this time. It's a wonderful opportunity to reset and to re-center and refocus and know that you can be clever and try to change the world, but it's much wiser to change yourself and to find the people that are going to help you to do that.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Arlène Elizabeth Casimir is a Brooklyn-based activist, educator, herbalist, healer, and writer. Her experience teaching middle school and elementary school in New York City and New Orleans awakened her purpose of drawing on culturally-sustaining and trauma-responsive teaching practices to nurture the inner genius and inner teacher in others. She founded, designed, and implemented a healing-centered curriculum for her students post-Hurricane Katrina. As a first generation Haitian American, Arlène recognizes the power of community, equity, literacy, and spiritual resilience to help others live with personal integrity, transcend their circumstances, and author their own lives. She enjoys working with teachers, families, schools, and community organizations to do the inner work for socially just outer change. She is currently studying Clinical Psychology and Education with a concentration in Spirituality Mind Body at Teachers College, Columbia University; and leading her educational consultancy, The Awakened Collaborative, LLC where she works as a staff developer and partner to various institutions that are aligned to her mission, vision, and values as an educator.
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