Lately, I find myself remembering events from my life I haven't thought about in some time. Yesterday, I shared my memories of being a struggling student, and its impact on me today.
After listening to a podcast, I'm thinking about a unique time in my teaching career, the professional crossroads between teaching and administration.
Late in my teaching career, I had two competing opportunities:
become an administrator
carve a new path in teaching
Enrolled in courses that would prepare me to become a literacy specialist, I was to complete a unique practicum that would afford me opportunities for an up-close look at what motivates and challenges a struggling reader. In addition to working full time, and being a new father, I had taken this on as a new challenge.
At the same time, I was being encouraged and recruited for school-based leadership. Always someone who thrived on being involved in project-based collaborative work, I was teaching by day, and organizing extended day programs in evenings and on weekends.
Looking back, this was a fascinating dichotomy.
Would I go on to work with individual students, to support the support of personal success?
Or would I take a brave leap into the unknown, viewed as serving large groups of people?
Keeping one foot in each camp for awhile, I was able to see the benefits of each.
I'd work after school with one student, an eight year old boy, and reluctant, struggling reader. He was a baseball fan. So while I honed the skills I was learning in literacy instructor courses, he and I, together, were enjoying shared reading experiences about a topic we both loved. Building his confidence, his reading stamina, and sustaining his interest gave me purpose.
Organizing and implementing programs, I was coming to understand that administrators did more than drink coffee, carry a clipboard, and point. The management of relationships and the human dynamics were fascinating to me. The order and manner in which tasks needed to be done, was sophisticated and strategic. Ever detail mattered. And building trusting relationships with adults, I came to realize, is complex and delicate.
Both of these, which at first seemed drastically different, were quite similar.
Managing relationships, systems, all while being open and receptive to real-time, honest feedback built my capacity and confidence as a human being. Being helped by each a student and an administrative mentor, both made me a better teacher and administrator.
Listening to this particular episode of the One Percent Better podcast with host, Joe Ferraro and guest, Kelly Gallagher reminded me of this unique period of my life. Both teachers, they've elected to put themselves in situations that will yield growth and improvement.
Why this? Why now?
Well, as we face the start of a new school year, I'm reconnecting with my "inner teacher". The 2020's will place different demands on us as educators.
And new and different challenges call for new and different responses.
So why not "help ourselves" this new school year, by embracing by what we can acknowledged is unknown and that will be challenging?
If the worst that happens is we help someone and grow in the process, isn't that worth it?
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