KJ Zarrella ยท educator, learning designer, facilitator
What if we started with a little wonder?
I'm KJ. I make places where people can practice connection, communication and change, and I like to start them with a question.
The idea
We don't have to know before we begin
What if we didn't take ourselves so seriously, and we designed chances to practice from a place of softness, silliness and play?
A question puts us into relationship with the world, with one another, and with what we don't yet understand. I've carried that into classrooms, staff rooms, counseling rooms and community rooms. The rooms change. The way in stays the same: a little wonder, real inquiry, and a willingness to try.
- Connection
- Communication
- Change
Same way in, different rooms
Where I've been asking
Classrooms
What do you notice?
More than eight years of full-time teaching in Colorado and New York, fourth grade through high school: language arts, writing, science, and now Global History I and psychology. My students read sources closely, make a claim, and find out what new evidence does to it.
Curriculum
What should students get to figure out for themselves?
At the Girls Athletic Leadership School in Denver, I redesigned the GALS Series, a vertically aligned curriculum that widens from self to community to world. At Richmond Prep, I designed the Carbon Symposium, where students investigated local carbon-cycle problems and presented their ideas to families, younger students and educators. This year, inquiry-driven Global History I.
Adults learning
What's already working here?
Science department chair and tenth grade team leader, coaching colleagues through observation and feedback. Staff professional learning on identity, power and accountable relationship at GALS. Seven summers as Dean of Students at Breakthrough Kent Denver, coaching high school and college-aged teaching fellows.
Counseling and contemplative practice
What's here right now?
M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Naropa University (2023), with a concentration in contemplative psychotherapy and Buddhist psychology. Supervised clinical training in trauma-informed counseling with adolescents and adults, then two school years as a mental health clinician and teacher at GALS. I'm also a certified yoga teacher.
Community
Who isn't in the room yet?
North Star Labs is my own practice, founded in 2026 on Staten Island. It's rooted in gathering, learning, expression, writing, contemplative practice and community inquiry. I grew up on Staten Island and I teach here now.
Work you can look at
Start with something real
About
A little more about me
- Home
- Staten Island, New York
- Now
- Teaching Global History I and psychology
- Studied
- Harvard University, B.A. in Government (2014)
- And then
- Naropa University, M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling (2023)
Working together
Come to dinner
I host small gatherings at my table, with good food and a real conversation. Each one begins with a question. We gather, we think together, and you leave with a few more questions than you came with.
How can we move toward each other and ourselves at the same time?
A small table. By invitation.To ask for a seat, write to kj@ns-labs.org