Reflection: Mentorship and Pencils During COVID19

COVID19 has certainly been effective at throwing all sorts of systems and semblances of normalcy out the window.  Creating new teaching environments, using new communication platforms and tools and completely reorganizing our days and routines are pretty weighty changes to experience in a short amount of time.  While I wrap up week four of "instruction" and collaboration and problem-solving with all of my colleagues, be they grade-level or building teammates, building and district administrators, special education and other support staff, I know that some folks within the district are likely already beginning to anticipate any needs that parents, students, teachers and staff might have come the fall semester.  Long-range planning happens every year, whether there is a pandemic or some other hurdle in play or not.  No matter when their stay-at-home orders were enacted, other schools and other districts have started to do the same.

During many past springs, I pencil-planned for the upcoming year as soon as the finalized school calendar was published. I pencil-plan rather than ink-plan because I know that events will be rescheduled and our calendar will change.  I'll find new resources, experience new jolts of inspiration, and have to be flexible for unanticipated accommodations. Nothing is set in stone despite the hope that everything will, in time, go according to the way I had both intended and hoped.  Using a pencil indicates that it's a rough draft, the version that precedes the working draft.  For many years the working draft got its fair share of White-Out dabbed across its pages, simply because I liked the glide of ink over the abrasion of pencil. Nowadays, I simply double-click on text, delete it, and revise data within the cell. Knowing that changes will inevitably happen has never caused me to rethink the merit of pencil-planning. It's another way for me to mentally map the foundational pieces I need and plan to implement for my students' benefit.  I doubt I'll ever choose to fly-blind just waiting to be "surprised" during back-to-school PD. I can be informed now and pencil-plan so that future mandates don't throw me against the wall in August.  

As the most veteran member of my grade-level team, and despite having missed the beginning of the year with them thanks to my late-summer surgery and extended recovery time, I am both formally required to act in a mentorship role and personally feel responsible for making myself and my experience regularly available to my colleagues.  I have expanded my PLN over the years to include groups on Twitter and Facebook, and I have been fortunate to meet and learn from all sorts of wonderful early-childhood educators, college professors and library media specialists during my career and master's program.  When I'm asked for help by a teacher in my building or one five states away via social media, I try to make sure to preface what I share with "use it or don't," so that my PLN can cherrypick the best of what I might be able to offer them while hopefully feeling the autonomy to make their own choices and to innovate, rather than pressure to comply and risk becoming a cookie-cutter teacher. I also believe in playing the role of devil's advocate in order to broaden thinking.  Affirmation, agreement, and the feeling of being a contributory component of a trusted partnership where ideas can be shared, explored, or simply explained are essential emotions for members of any team or purposeful group to experience.  I believe that a common goal for teams should be to balance harmony while avoiding tunnel-vision because being repeatedly blindsided by information that could have been shared earlier but wasn't results in wasted time, increased frustration, and eventual mistrust.  Whether lurking or being actively involved in these conversations, I reap the benefit of diverse perspectives and the experiences of others.  I am a mentor and "mentee," a colleague of other educators.

Working from home I still feel like I must operate within dual roles as I teach, collaborate, plan and share.  I'm a colleague who is not only a kindergarten teacher, but the yearbook producer for the school and the moderator for the professional development points requests that teachers submit towards their re-licensure.  I don't respond in philosophic terms to inquiries about the cost of yearbooks, whether or not I have a piece of writing paper that I can scan and share as a template, or the number of points needed for a fifth-year teacher without a master's degree to renew his or her license. However, when colleagues new to teaching and/or new to our building and district ask for a heads-up regarding what to expect from an upcoming grade-level district meeting, or need clarification so that they better understand the shift from academic grading to marks for engagement, my role as mentor requires that I go a bit deeper, and invest time to not only offer the reasoning behind answers and explanations, but to really hear their concerns and worries, too. This can be a highly emotional, intense component of mentorship, especially for someone who empathizes with others.  To me, there is a distinct difference between the nuts and bolts of teaching and the soul of teaching.  As a colleague, I can hand you a ream of construction paper when you've run out.  As a mentor, I can suggest different ways of using it to benefit your students when you ask or express an interest.  Both responses are helpful within their constructs and contexts.  Dictating "you shoulds" or steamrolling others so that they can't learn how to collaborate (though they might feel relief at simply having the decision-making taken out of their hands) are not ways aligned with serving the profession.  Teaching is full of emotions, and not just for the students. Sharing, patience, inclusion and authenticity are essential ingredients to successful mentor/mentee relationships, not to mention team-growing.

Having to try to teach remotely isn't a choice I, or many others, would have made, but wanting to do it as well as I possibly can remains my intention. I hoped to be both an effective colleague and mentor during this time too, but at this point, I feel like I'm failing at giving my immediate colleagues and some distance-edu-friends what they want or need.  None of us is operating at one-hundred percent, and we all react differently to stressful situations.  Issues that have arisen likely wouldn't have become issues at all if the status-quo of our daily instruction with students within our classrooms had been maintained and COVID19 hadn't come along.  We're not all in the same boat, and even our storms differ.  Perhaps some need me to metaphorically just hand them a ream of construction paper, despite the fact that their questions and assertions resemble requests for guidance and/or context.  Compounding this uncertainty for me are *of course*  my old standbys: for one, I can't "hear" another person's tone within an email and rely heavily upon the use of emojis and gifs (score one for social media where emojis reign supreme).  Not many people have the energy, inclination or patience it takes to find the wink, the laughing out loud, or the thinking faces right now, or maybe they're just not considered professional. Secondly, I continue to falsely assume that politeness and consideration will be reciprocated in return for my efforts.  Not everyone says "thank you," during a pandemic (another point for social media where showing appreciation continues to be considered proper etiquette), so I remind myself that it is those with whom we are most familiar that we should afford the most grace, especially when it's for something as simple as forgiving a social faux-pas. After dipping my toes into the ponds and streams of Facebook and the lakes and oceans on Twitter, I'm confident that there are many other teachers across the nation and in other countries who also find navigating their colleagues' emotions a wee bit tricky this month. Perhaps a gross generalization would actually be appropriate for this moment in time: none of us is getting what we hope for right now. 

After four weeks of remote learning, thirteen years in my present district, twenty-four (twenty-five?) years of teaching, and with a nationwide PLN at my fingertips, I still feel both able and inclined to pencil-plan this spring, just as I've done almost every year.  I've worked ahead to curate, create and schedule content via Seesaw, which has afforded me extra time for other pursuits and chores.  Because I've purposely sought out multiple news sources, surfed and chosen to read information shared from teachers in other districts and states regarding their immediate and future proposed solutions to closed schools, and have tracked the daily updates from health officials (I'm ignoring politicians who are advocating for the economy over problem-solving that will save the most lives) that have made it clear that we are, in fact, 1) presently both lab rats and human test subjects and 2) that it won't be safe for us to "return to normal" until we have a vaccine that is at least a year away, I've set myself the task of envisioning what remote learning might look like in August and September (and October, and November, and February, and April 2021). So when questions from colleagues near and far arose this week regarding possible changes and tweaks to the present emergency based technology-heavy format for delivery of instruction, I suggested that any and all continued fine-tuning might reflect not only a current but possibly future need as well: there's a significant chance that we will not be returning to the classroom as hoped for in the fall.  Can I articulate whether my response came from colleague-me or mentor-me?  Not really. Can I unequivocally say that I didn't intend to cause additional stress and worry when I shared my thoughts?  Yes. 

Suffice it to say, I now realize that many teachers are not ready to pencil-plan or entertain possibilities for next year.  Perhaps they don't plan to return and are focusing all of their time and effort into making their last weeks of remote teaching the best that they can for their students and their sanity.  Perhaps their boats and their storms have them planted squarely in the middle of the fiercest fight of their lives and their immediate needs require that they invest all of their time and effort bailing water from their vessel.  Perhaps they prefer the top-down approach, believing that their "circle of control" (yay, ontological coaching, my favorite), is solely dependent upon the decisions of others, so they'd prefer to not do anything at all until an administrator tells them to.  I can admire their perseverance and any commitment they have made to be the best teachers for their students possible. I can empathize with their fear, and sympathize deeply with their pain, with full acknowledgment that it's not just students who have to "do Maslow before Bloom."  No, I'll never advocate that teachers completely hand over the reins of education to administrators and politicians, no matter how much I appreciate all of the "good" ones.  While I believe it's prudent to start the work of tomorrow today, or at least soon regarding the next school year, I understand that not everyone feels the same way for a multitude of reasons. 

And it's here, with these most passive or even resistant of educators, that I find myself feeling neither like colleague-me or mentor-me, but instead wanting to channel Chrisjen Avasarala, a character from one of my favorite science fiction series as I choose to concede (slightly) with this:

"Well, we disagree. One of us is wrong. I think it's you... but I hope it's me."

I hope a true miracle presents itself that enables us to get back to business without fear for our health, or the health of our families, students, colleagues, and neighbors, soon.  But until then...

... hand me a pencil, will you?

Lucky Colleagues

I work with some fun people!  ~Funny~ people.  Silly people.  People who, like me, believe a school is the perfect place for smiles and laughter.

Relocations and new adventures *happen* though, some by chance, some by choice.  If they can't remain in-building, it's cool when those smiley people stay in-district.

Sometimes they ask me to help them decorate their new working spaces, and whether it's because they like symmetry, color and balance as much as I do or they end up determining their own style and organization by deciding none of my ideas are a good fit, I enjoy sharing my time and ideas with them.

Today I get to help generate a vision for an administrative office, and because it's for a fellow good-humor-gal, I'm totally suggesting the following themes:

Get Ahead at ____________ Middle School!

(Game and Fish Magazine)

____________ Middle School, Where We Start Each Day With a BANG!

...and my personal favorite since I'm an elementary teacher, Whoa! Everything *IS* Bigger When You Go To Middle School!

(Radford Wallis)


(flickr)

I'm certain a disco ball would compliment ANY of these themes.

My friends are lucky to have me.


*wink*

Rethinking the Collegial Dynamic

Looking back at the photos from my very first classroom must have given my brain a bit of a jolt this week.  I've been reminiscing, remembering "new teacher" experiences, and rethinking the why's and wherefores behind my reasons for teaching, all while stapling up new bulletin board paper, trim, and thematic posters.  Despite my many years of experience, I'm yet again bruising my shins as I arrange short tables, chairs and learning center furniture.  Some things never change.

My thoughts have jumped between remembrances, a-ha's, criticisms, and affirmations.  Hindsight being what it is, I've even managed to come to an understanding about how important it is to continue to just be myself, despite changes at work.  My upbringing will always be that of a "teacher's kid."  I've taught in four different schools and districts in three different states, so my perception, interests and practice will be affected by those locales as much as the present one influences me.  Nothing will change my past work experiences, be they successes, bungles, or exercises in sheer endurance.  Most importantly, *I* have changed, and acknowledge that I am likely to continue to do so.

Like many new teachers, I didn't want to seek out help from my colleagues that first year out of college.  In fact, I didn't even want to admit that I wanted or needed input from a mentor!  I recreated the wheel, I stumbled, and I had to do everything myself, a hands-on learner to the very end.  I couldn't use a colleague's lesson plan template because I had to go through the motions of creating my own piece by piece. Yes, I lived at school, early mornings, late evenings, long weekends.  I had to learn by doing, not by taking the advice, patterns, or master copies from others.  It was a long year.  A long two years.  Three years.  Four.

Class sizes changed, curriculum materials changed, computers invaded the building en masse.  After a decade in the same school at the same grade with the same colleagues, I fell in love, married, and was relocated thanks to Uncle Sam.  I was called to interview for a job in a district I hadn't even submitted a resume or application to, and was hired immediately.  I learned that district's edu-acronyms, taught, and partnered with my only other grade level colleague, and learned first-hand what it meant to be part of a military family and what it meant to teach the children of our nation's armed forces.  I also learned to avoid taking the trash out at night because the sight of tarantulas cooling themselves on our walls creeped me out to no end.

Another military move and I found myself teaching in Oz while my husband was deployed.  The experiences from that year taught me I could endure just about anything with the right people at my side, and that despite hardship, I could still provide an excellent "first year of school" experience to kindergartners.  NCLB acronyms were added to my professional vocabulary, and I discovered online social media.  I began blogging.  I ranted, vented, and discovered an audience that commiserated with me, encouraged me, and helped me by offering ideas, resources, and counterpoint.  This new form of collegiality redefined how, when, and with whom I could interact and learn.  Teachers I'd never met began to dialogue with me, and they encouraged me to share with others.  Not only could I learn from them, I could teach them: kindergartners are a different breed, and not everyone has the knack that I apparently do.  I came to realize that what I know can help others beyond the walls of my own classroom, school building, district, state, and country.

Two more relocations and I found myself back in Oz, still in kindergarten, still teaching soldier's children.  Friendships and collegial relationships borne from the internet made the move with me, as did my blog.  If I wanted to recreate the wheel, I could, but even better, I could share it with others who were interested.  I found like-minded public, private, and home school teachers, and developed a strong appreciation for the professional reciprocity that was prevalent amongst those of us who "put ourselves out there."  Yet another district's edu-acronyms were added to my list, but by this time, it needed to be culled: is it a SIT team, a SWAT team, or the SEAL team?  You might be surprised at the kinds of looks you can get from new colleagues when you use the wrong acronym or term.  Even more entertaining are the mutterings about yourself you overhear when you work with colleagues whose experiences, though numerous, don't match your own.

I've been the new teacher, the brown teacher hired to maintain an affirmative action percentile, the affordable choice, the highly qualified, and the "best fit" for a district.  I've also been the square peg in a world of round holes, which colleagues come to grips with in their own way, in their own time.  Why would this observation make such an impression upon me after fifteen-plus years?  Because despite the semi-lengthy timeline of my own personal and professional changes and growth, my students and their parents have never seemed to need to make an adjustment when getting to know me.  We've laughed, shared, debated, and we've partnered, just as colleagues do.  Maybe parents and families have felt they have a more intimate understanding of my intentions as their child's kindergarten teacher.  Perhaps, out of necessity, I created a global professional learning network for myself upon which I continue to turn more often than the colleagues within my building.

Or I'm just an odd duck.

Something to ponder.


(Image found here)