Guest blogger: Jehanne Beaton, Roosevelt High School, Minneapolis
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Although it was more than two decades ago, I remember how
desperate I was during those December weeks of my first year of teaching. I just ached for a break. I counted down to my two weeks away from
school and teaching and my students. My
first teaching job landed me in a small, growing city on the opposite end of
the country from home and family. I
didn’t know a soul there when I took the job, and it took me a while to develop
friends. Teaching consumed me. I arrived at school hours before school
started and, most days, stayed long after the students had left. When I wasn’t at school, I was sitting in my
miserable, basement studio apartment and grading stacks of middle school social
studies assignments at a makeshift desk of a cardboard box covered with beach
towels. Like many young teachers, I had
taken on additional work: coaching,
after school tutoring, chaperoning dances, and serving on multiple
committees. I enjoyed my students, but
that didn’t mean they didn’t test me. On
the final Friday when the bell rang, signaling school’s two-week hiatus, I left
my students’ papers in neat stacks in my classroom and sprinted to my car,
driving three hours to the nearest airport.
I just couldn’t get home fast enough.
While away, I searched for ways to renew and sustain my
energy and strength. I reconnected with
friends and loved ones, slept as much as my parents would let me, and read for
pleasure, rather than out of responsibility.
And I came up with strategies to maintain my beliefs about teaching and
kids and to remind myself why I became a teacher in the first place. Since many of you may be in a similar
situation of your own, I thought I’d share two that have served me well.
1.
Seek out
your own teacher mentor. Some
districts have figured out that young teachers benefit from consistent and
meaningful support from district and building mentors, and they have invested
in hiring talented, thoughtful master teachers to serve as coaches and reinforcement. Other districts, short on funds or foresight,
may not. When I was a young teacher, no
such support structure existed at my school.
So I set about finding my own.
By winter break, I had a good sense of which veteran teachers in my
building were held in high esteem. (Ask
your students who they believe are their best teachers, the teachers from whom
they learn the most, whose classes they most want to attend. They know and will tell you.) Then, throwing any discomfort or anxiety out
the window, I asked two teachers, one in my department and one who taught
Spanish, if I could meet with each of them for lunch every so often to talk
teaching. Since that first year and in
every school since, I have sought professional conversation and support from colleagues
of my choice, most often teachers whom the students most admired and regarded
most highly. I have asked them to come
and observe me teach during their prep time, or if they would give me feedback
on a lesson or summative assessment. By
developing these informal mentoring relationships, you will support your own
reflective practice and communicate your own growth mindset to your
colleagues. Further, it provides you
with a trusted teacher friend who comes to know you and your work. This person can be an invaluable resource for
you in your early years of teaching.
2.
Create a
“Why I Teach” Folder: It doesn’t
matter how long you’ve been at it: every
teacher has horrible days. Any teacher who says they don’t is a big, fat
liar. But for each teacher, we also have
moments, hours, days that remind us why we entered into this work. Maybe you’ve received a touching thank you
letter from a student or parent. Maybe
one of your students has worked past the edges of their abilities and surpassed
your – or even their own – expectations of themselves. Maybe there’s this moment when you see the
learning light up for a student, and they ask a speaker a question that shows
you they’ve been listening, they’re thinking, the work you’re doing in class is
sinking in…. These are artifacts to hang
on to and place in your “Why I Teach” Folder.
I started my “Why I Teach” folder over winter break my first year of
teaching. Every year since then, I drop
a few items into it. It’s thick now, and
some items are weathered and stained.
Every time I return to it, thumbing through its contents, I come away
more deeply committed to teaching. Your
“Why I Teach” folder will become a place for reflection, contemplation and
renewal too, especially when days are hard.
The next time you read some non-teacher newspaper editorialist bad-mouth
our profession, or that student of yours, Joe Bagodonuts, has worked your last
nerve, or the teacher next door has been condescending about your ‘new teacher
ideas’, or you have too much to grade and lessons to write and it seems like
you and your students are stuck: dig out
your “Why I Teach” folder. Re-examine
and remember the good of the work. Of
your work. I can’t tell you how much it
helps.
These two weeks will bring a needed respite to everyone: your colleagues, your students, even your
principals. And it stands as a giant milestone in your first year of teaching: you’re almost half way there.
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Jehanne Beaton spent 14 years in the classroom as a secondary social studies teacher. Currently, she works as a partnership liaison at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis and is working to complete her Ph.D in Teacher Education and Social Studies Education.
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