Building a Heart-Led Classroom

Building a heart-led classroom is a process and your heart-led classroom will begin to take shape over time. However, there are steps that can be taken to ensure that what you are creating will be strong, enduring, and able to support teaching and learning efforts, as well as the direct needs of your students and yourself.

Heart-led teaching, for me, has consisted of many beautiful pieces and parts that eventually solidified into a strong and effective approach over time. As the founder of heart-led teaching; I brought together many ideas, trials, and discoveries from years of experiences, observations, and approaches, to eventually build the heart-led teaching way. It became a strong; highly effective; magnificent structure that now sits firmly with open doors. It has offered the students that I serve a welcoming space to walk inside, and then consider the plan that they will create to walk back out and into the world to pursue their dreams. This structure has held many successful teaching and learning moments, many talks that speak of life and speak life, and as our teaching and learning processes open up the windows to possibilities; there has been a consistent flow of positive energy that circulates the energy of greatness.

Building the heart-led classroom is not the same as setting up your classroom at the beginning of the school year. This is certainly a part of the process; however, a heart-led classroom is truly a building process that requires an intentional approach from the classroom teacher, that eventually becomes the collective effort and a co-building experience of all who spend time within the space.

Heart-led classroom building starts with much of what we already know about setting up our classrooms for year-long success. This is the foundation and the first crucial step.

You can think of building your heart-led classroom as one would plan to build a house or any other structure. I will begin introducing the heart-led way with this approach. As your heart-led classroom continues to take shape over time, I will also continue to provide guidance, tips, and tools on the this site that will support you as you build. I am excitingly sprinting back through my journey to lead you all along the path. I will be there, leading the way, providing information, leading you to resting points, shining a light through any darkness, and helping you to place your welcome mat as you lead your students into your heart-led space.

Study the image above to consider how the heart-led classroom is a building process. Read about the basic parts of the heart-led learning structure and how it can help you plan your heart-led learning space. Remember, just like a new home, you will eventually fill this space with many unique and special items that match your vision and the exact needs in your classroom. You will utilize this space to implement your plans and to lead your students to success. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts that will break down each part of the heart-led structure and how it can support teaching and learning in your classroom.

Meet me in the next post with your imaginary hard hat, hammer, and nails—we have beautiful work to do.

Amara Nia