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Cut to Aberdeen HS Library. The teacher is standing up front, clearly a little nervous as her knees shake together.
Mr. Garth: And for today's PD, Ms. Schwartz is going to show us her tactics for close reading. This is something I want to see in every room. Ms. Schwartz, you ready? She pauses, breathes in, smiles and... The teacher: Yes. |
This episode is about the teacher stepping up while stepping back. She's a second year now, nearly a third year since she's decided she is staying at the high school to endure what is apparently the worst class ever. She's learned a little bit about professionalism and a lot about kids and enough about teaching to step into a few leadership roles.
When I started at Aberdeen High School, I was unsure of how to lead anything. Sure, I'd been a leader of group projects in the past. I'd sent the emails reminding people to turn in their parts and put the powerpoint together. I'd run a shift at a coffee shop and the bakery. I'd even been the administrator in an office briefly. None of these were paramount as the leadership roles I would need to take at the school. I wasn't prepared for those, but I learned slowly how to step into these roles.
The first leadership role I had to learn was the one of teacher. In an earlier episode, you saw a teacher who cried in bathrooms and let the kids run the class instead of taking charge of her own room. She blamed kids for what went wrong. She didn't know how to take responsibility for the class turning into chaos. I became a leader in my classroom the second I stepped back and said 90% of what happens in here is up to me. Yes, kids have things that go on outside of my room and yes, they come in with baggage every day, but it's on me to set the expectations for the room so that what they bring in does not catapult into chaos. I have never been good at taking responsibility. I don't like to admit that I'm wrong, but if I hadn't, there is no way I would have accomplished anything in my room. Assuming the role of a leader in my room meant raising my expectations for the kids. Sometimes, I hear a coworker say, "These kids just can't behave" and I remember saying the same thing not long ago. What we fail to recognize in saying that is that the kids do behave in most of their classes and they only do what you allow them to. I kept wondering why they were talking over me, but I never gave them consequences for doing it, so why wouldn't they? I reset the expectations so that we were in this together. In stepping up as leader, I stepped back and let them take control of their learning. As I stepped into this role, more leadership roles continued to come.
As I said earlier, professionalism is not my strong suit. Anyone who knows me knows that I am opinionated and blunt. I tended to keep to myself in staff meetings for fear that my mouth would get me in trouble like it has for years and years. I smiled and nodded, but I didn't contribute anything. My leadership role in the classroom had taken off but once I stepped out of there, I moved into my own corner. In the fall of 2016, this was no longer possible. I was checking my schedule of classes and there it was: 8th period-MENTOR TEACHER. I rushed over the Garth's office, laptop in hand. "What is this?" I said, pointing at the line on my computer. He laughed and said, "You and Peter are going to run the department and help other teachers this year. I need you to help the new teachers and work on data with the other state tested teachers. It's a second planning but because I need your help."
I was stunned. Confused. But also, a little thrilled. This leadership role became a fun one, for the most part as I spent tons of time throughout the year meeting with the U.S. History and Algebra I teacher to discuss progress monitoring and scores. I assisted in a professional development about data. I sat down with new teachers to be an ear on a bad day or a magic 8 ball when they needed some help or guidance. I slowly stepped up here too. I moved forward as it was comfortable for me and led as I wanted to. I wasn't prepared for the day when Garth would ask me to run a development session. That wasn't comfortable. It made me uneasy, but I smiled, nodded and said, "yes."
It was an after-school PD, one that was meant to be quick. I stood in front of a room of teachers who, with the exception of two people, were all older than me and had been teaching for much longer than me. They were ready to leave, and I didn't blame them because to be honest, so was I. It was uncomfortable to show them something, to stand in front of them like I had any business being there, but then, as I was explaining close readings, I began to feel more and more at ease. After the meeting, my mentor told me she was proud of me and excited to see the strategy implemented in more rooms and a few veteran teachers told me things they loved about what we did together. There were some snide comments about my youth, but I smiled and nodded and moved on, walking into Garth's office to talk about how it went.
I hadn't decided to stay yet, wasn't sure of what to do next year. He sat me down and asked me to become the ultimate leader.
"I need you to stay a third year. Then, you need to do administration. Principal Corps. Something. Teach for a little while longer but you need to be in a leadership role. That's who you are. I know you weren't sure at first, but you know that's what you should be doing. I won't guilt you into staying, but I will say, wherever you go, please look into becoming an administrator eventually. You would be great. Just saying."
I signed my letter of intent that day to come back that next year and in my mind, I set an intent to grow more as a leader in my third year.
When I started at Aberdeen High School, I was unsure of how to lead anything. Sure, I'd been a leader of group projects in the past. I'd sent the emails reminding people to turn in their parts and put the powerpoint together. I'd run a shift at a coffee shop and the bakery. I'd even been the administrator in an office briefly. None of these were paramount as the leadership roles I would need to take at the school. I wasn't prepared for those, but I learned slowly how to step into these roles.
The first leadership role I had to learn was the one of teacher. In an earlier episode, you saw a teacher who cried in bathrooms and let the kids run the class instead of taking charge of her own room. She blamed kids for what went wrong. She didn't know how to take responsibility for the class turning into chaos. I became a leader in my classroom the second I stepped back and said 90% of what happens in here is up to me. Yes, kids have things that go on outside of my room and yes, they come in with baggage every day, but it's on me to set the expectations for the room so that what they bring in does not catapult into chaos. I have never been good at taking responsibility. I don't like to admit that I'm wrong, but if I hadn't, there is no way I would have accomplished anything in my room. Assuming the role of a leader in my room meant raising my expectations for the kids. Sometimes, I hear a coworker say, "These kids just can't behave" and I remember saying the same thing not long ago. What we fail to recognize in saying that is that the kids do behave in most of their classes and they only do what you allow them to. I kept wondering why they were talking over me, but I never gave them consequences for doing it, so why wouldn't they? I reset the expectations so that we were in this together. In stepping up as leader, I stepped back and let them take control of their learning. As I stepped into this role, more leadership roles continued to come.
As I said earlier, professionalism is not my strong suit. Anyone who knows me knows that I am opinionated and blunt. I tended to keep to myself in staff meetings for fear that my mouth would get me in trouble like it has for years and years. I smiled and nodded, but I didn't contribute anything. My leadership role in the classroom had taken off but once I stepped out of there, I moved into my own corner. In the fall of 2016, this was no longer possible. I was checking my schedule of classes and there it was: 8th period-MENTOR TEACHER. I rushed over the Garth's office, laptop in hand. "What is this?" I said, pointing at the line on my computer. He laughed and said, "You and Peter are going to run the department and help other teachers this year. I need you to help the new teachers and work on data with the other state tested teachers. It's a second planning but because I need your help."
I was stunned. Confused. But also, a little thrilled. This leadership role became a fun one, for the most part as I spent tons of time throughout the year meeting with the U.S. History and Algebra I teacher to discuss progress monitoring and scores. I assisted in a professional development about data. I sat down with new teachers to be an ear on a bad day or a magic 8 ball when they needed some help or guidance. I slowly stepped up here too. I moved forward as it was comfortable for me and led as I wanted to. I wasn't prepared for the day when Garth would ask me to run a development session. That wasn't comfortable. It made me uneasy, but I smiled, nodded and said, "yes."
It was an after-school PD, one that was meant to be quick. I stood in front of a room of teachers who, with the exception of two people, were all older than me and had been teaching for much longer than me. They were ready to leave, and I didn't blame them because to be honest, so was I. It was uncomfortable to show them something, to stand in front of them like I had any business being there, but then, as I was explaining close readings, I began to feel more and more at ease. After the meeting, my mentor told me she was proud of me and excited to see the strategy implemented in more rooms and a few veteran teachers told me things they loved about what we did together. There were some snide comments about my youth, but I smiled and nodded and moved on, walking into Garth's office to talk about how it went.
I hadn't decided to stay yet, wasn't sure of what to do next year. He sat me down and asked me to become the ultimate leader.
"I need you to stay a third year. Then, you need to do administration. Principal Corps. Something. Teach for a little while longer but you need to be in a leadership role. That's who you are. I know you weren't sure at first, but you know that's what you should be doing. I won't guilt you into staying, but I will say, wherever you go, please look into becoming an administrator eventually. You would be great. Just saying."
I signed my letter of intent that day to come back that next year and in my mind, I set an intent to grow more as a leader in my third year.