I'm just a few days shy of retiring from a full and rewarding career, and in the vernacular of the day, I'm "feeling all the feels" as the one constant in my adult life is drawing to a close.
On Friday evening, I spent a few hours celebrating retirement with colleagues and friends.
I found myself chatting with the young, dynamic kindergarten team. Truthfully, I don't know any of these teachers since we live in elementary school version of "two separate universes." I spend my time with 5th graders on the second floor, and they are on the opposite end of the hall on the first floor.
And, since they began their careers amid Covid19 social distancing, we haven't even spent any meaningful time together in faculty meetings, if meaningful faculty meetings are a real thing, but I digress.
In just a few minutes with these women I knew that the future of teaching was bright, and I found myself a little bit sad that I had not known them in any significant way. I'm sure they could have helped me with my new smart panel and entering data into platforms and such.
And maybe, I'd have a few things to bring to the party. Things they will no doubt learn on their own, but maybe a little earlier if I share them now.
1. Teaching is holy, important work. Maybe the most important work there is. Over your career, hundreds of families will entrust you day after day with their most valuable gift. Don't take that honor lightly.
2. While teaching is important (Rule #1) you are not in the middle of a heart transplant. Your guided reading lesson can be interrupted for the first snowflake of the season. Families will treasure the school pictures that ruin your schedule more than whatever lesson may be interrupted when the announcement comes over the intercom to come to the library for pictures. If your colleague knocks on your door to borrow a book, stop for a second and hand her the book. This will teach your kids how to be a decent human.
3. Find a work mother or aunt. They may not go out with you on Friday night, but they'll tell you when your skirt is too short, your lessons aren't rigorous enough. They'll let you know the edicts from the board that can be ignored and those that must be followed. They will tell you that you never go to the copier or bookstore without asking your teammates if they need anything.
4. Eat lunch. Go to the bathroom when you need to. Sleep 8 hours every night. Use your personal days.
5. Realize that teaching in a public school is a political statement, whether you want it to be or not. By signing on as a public school teacher, you are saying that there is a place of respect and honor in your classroom no matter your race, gender, sexual orientation, sexual identity, religion, socio-economic background, or your immigration status. If that isn't true for you, teach in a private school.
6. Read the book to your class; don't let a video do it for you. Reading with children is an intimate, life-changing act for the teacher and students. If there's only one thing you do every single day, read to your students.
7. Remember that for 99% of the children you will teach, their parents know that child better than you. They are the expert on that specific child, no matter your experience or education. They are important partners, not the enemy.
8. With any luck at all, every child you teach will have someone in their life that thinks they hung the moon. Remember that, when you're ready to give up on that one kid.
9. Teach children that their power comes in their ability to read and write.
10. Let the kids know you. Show them picture of your pets. Tell stories of your failure and the lessons you learned. Share music and art and poetry that you love. Most of the things that we love to do are because someone we loved shared it with us.
11. Don't ask questions you know the answers to. This will make teaching more interesting and raise your questioning to a deeper level at the same time. It will also keep your kids from thinking that there can only be one answer.
12. You should not be working harder than your students. When that happens, re-evaluate, ask a colleague for suggestions to shift that way of thinking.
13. When teaching doesn't bring you joy, get a different job. Teaching isn't effective if it is joy-less.
14. Give the old teachers a break. They haven't given up on the kids or the profession. They're just tired of learning new curricula and management systems and data platforms that will you think will last forever, but will change in 3 1/2 years.
15. Find your village. Surround yourself with people that will celebrate with you, grieve with you. People that will make you look better than you are. People who in 30 years will break your heart when it's time to say goodbye.
Teach on, my young, new friends. Teach on.
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