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[Webinar Registration] Connection First: Strategies To Build Classroom Community
Connection First: Strategies To Build Classroom Community
Webinar description:
Teachers know that building relationships with students at the start of a new school year is important, but creating a classroom where students feel safe, connected, and ready to learn doesn't happen overnight.
How can teachers prioritize relationships before content and lay the foundation for a community of writers who can take on challenges together, work hard, and celebrate each other's successes and growth?
Join Dr. Tanya Baker, Executive Director of the National Writing Project, and Dr. Paige Whitlock, Literacy Director at NoRedInk, as they explore the research behind connection-first classrooms and share practical ways educators at every stage of their careers can build meaningful relationships with students.
The session will feature a pre-recorded conversation with three National Writing Project Teacher-Researchers, who will share their biggest insights about building trust and community starting on the first day of school.
After this session, you'll walk away with:
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Strategies to foster authentic peer-to-peer conversations
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Dialogue structures that strengthen trust between teachers and students
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Proven practices experienced teachers use to prepare for the first days of school
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Research-backed evidence for why connection should come before content
Join us as we learn from one another and prepare to begin a new school year grounded in connection, community, and joy!
Our Hosts
Dr. Paige Whitlock
Paige Whitlock works across NoRedInk teams to champion the needs of students, teachers, and administrators and ensure the product reflects the real challenges and opportunities of today’s classrooms. With experience teaching middle and high school ELA in seven states and serving as an ELA leader at both the school and district levels, Paige brings a deep, lived understanding of what it takes to teach literacy skills to diverse secondary learners.
Her passion for literacy and commitment to equitable instruction led her to pursue advanced research in disciplinary literacy at Virginia Tech, where her work earned the 2021 Dissertation Award. Paige draws on this blend of classroom experience, leadership perspective, and research expertise to help districts strengthen writing instruction and to guide NoRedInk’s efforts to build tools that genuinely support educators and the students they serve.
Dr. Tanya Baker
Tanya Baker is a nonprofit leader with more than 25 years of experience in education. After working as a teacher and literacy coach, at NWP Tanya has worked with many funders and partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, and West Ed. Through these relationships and in collaboration with excellent teacher-leaders, she has built and managed national programs that connect educators to work together on areas of interest and problems of practice that intrigue and trouble them.
For more than two decades Tanya has been committed to and shaped by the National Writing Project’s mission and vision and holds a deep commitment to practices that respect teachers and students. She strives to design learning experiences that begin with a presumption of competence and are relentlessly collaborative and deeply joyful.