Day 7: Mentorship

Last Thursday, I got a call from a college student who will be joining my class during her first semester of the Education Program. She will be observing, helping with and, hopefully, even planning lessons for my classes every Tuesday until December. I will be her mentor teacher and help her to see what education is like - the ups and the downs.

A good mentor is an amazing person to have in your life. As an English teacher I can tell you that meeting a mentor is so important to all humans that it is a critical part of many great stories. As a nerdy, movie-quoting man I can tell you that I've memorised some favourite mentorship lines and use them regularly with my kids and friends. As a teacher and learner, I can tell you that I would not be the same person I am today with the mentors that I have had.

The mentors I was blessed with early on in my career are the ones who helped provide me with practical tips to survive those first difficult years and, more importantly, provided me with "food for thought" that helped shape my pedagogy and thinking. I believe that every person I meet helps to shape my thinking, but those who I would consider mentors have made a lasting impact. They challenged me to examine my values and beliefs leading me towards change or stronger resolve. They asked for my advice with their own problems (or at least venting their frustrations to me), empowering me to become a producer of ideas as well as a consumer. They bounced ideas off me and let me bounce ideas off them. I am the teach I am today, because of the influence of those early mentors.

The people I consider mentors today act more like colleagues and friends than the mentors from the Hero's Journey. They are the people who are still doing what those early mentors in my career did. Helping me to survive the day-to-day and pushing me to be more tomorrow. More firm in my principles. More adaptable to the world around me. More empathetic to the needs of my students. We still bounce ideas off each other (in person and over social media) and I hope that my influence means as much to them and their influence means to me.

I hope that I am able to be a good mentor to this initiate to the profession. Teaching has never been easy, but it is filled with rewards. Sometimes, it can be hard, in the formal role, as a mentor to make sure that a student teacher experiences both. It is my goal to achieve this. To support what is strong. To suggest ways to strengthen areas that are weak. To be vulnerable with my own issues. To bounce ideas back and forth in order to grow - together.

Day 6: Reflections on a Classroom

A view from the doorway of Room 211

I have a room in our school where I hang my coat and where organization is my responsibility, but I am trying hard not to narrow my thinking on this topic. I don't want to let myself get caught up in the idea that learning is limited to a single space and I definitely don't want students to feel that the only space they will learn is in my classroom.

My habits of spreading out
even in a limited area.

That being said, I am also not going to ignore the impact that environment can have on learning. As stated in earlier posts, organization is a challenging area for me. One of the goals I set for myself as I moved into a new classroom this year, was to limit the amount of space that my clutter took up in the room. I want the room to be a space where students feel safe learning, and I know from first hand experience (my wife and kids are often my guinea pigs!) that my habit of "spreading" instead of organizing can be both frustrating and stressful. My first strategy to reduce the impact of my poor habits is to limit the amount of space I'm allowed in the room. On the advice of a wise, experienced teacher I've pushed my desk right against the wall. This limited space has already led me to organizing my desk top in the first 2 weeks of the school year. I also want the room to reflect the students that bring it to life and the learning that they are doing this year. That means taking the time to display their learning in the room. I've started this, but it will be the mid-year blitz that really tests this goal.

As I said earlier, I really don't want to limit the learning environment to one classroom. My school is graced with all kinds of amazing spaces that were designed from the outset to be learning areas. To this end, my colleages and I have have worked hard to show the students how they can learn in a variety of areas includng large gathering areas, small break-out areas and other teachers' classrooms. We are working hard to make sure students don't feel like it's a holiday every time they leave their homeroom. We have team-taught and had students collaborate with students outside their homerooms to encourage this mindset and culture.

Finally, pictures really can say more than words, so here a few of the spaces we've been using so far:

My colleague's room after our joint "Book Frenzy" lesson.
Students started in my room and then moved into
her room to "feed" on some great books.
Wish I had a picture of the energy the kids had.

Our Break-Out Space. Waiting for students
spill out of classes while still learning.

Our "Gathering Space" where students
play "Review Bingo" together.

A break-out space acting like a min-library
until our Learning Commons is ready.

Day 5: Reflections on the 1st Week

The first week of school is done and this marks my 5th blog post of the 30 day challenge. Time to reflect.

First blogging. Finding the time to blog can be a struggle. It means making my writing a priority. It means giving up some of the other things I do in my spare time. Taking the time to write has been rewarding. I find myself reflecting deeply on my pedagogy and my practice. I find myself filling quiet moments refining my thoughts in order to write them, giving me a stronger grasp on what I am thinking and feeling. I have to remember the growth mind set. I don't need to be riveting. I don't need to be funny. I just need to keep writing. (In case you didn't notice, one of the first rules I decided for myself was to relieve the pressure of writing a blog-a-day. So much better!)

Now school. School has been amazing! I didn't realize just how much a change in environment could rejuvenate my love of teaching. Even as I came home last night completely wiped out by the week, my wife commented on the sparkle in my eye when I spoke about the day. She said that was missing last year. I didn't realize it until now.

What's different? The complete and total uncertainty of a brand new school is definitely a large part of it. It's crazy to think, but the lack of established structures and patterns has been liberating in a way that is hard to explain. We had very few formal structures in place this week (recess/break and lunch was pretty much it). That meant that as a staff we were almost forced to come together in order to provide the type of first week that we wanted. As grade 7 teachers, we met nightly to debrief on the day and plan the next. We decided that we wanted to establish more than a homeroom community, we wanted a Grade 7 Community. So we planned times to team teach with each other and culminated by bringing all 100 of Grade 7's together in one large group lesson on Friday. All of it was absolutely amazing!

As I look ahead, a part of me is relieved by promise of a timetable next week. At the same time, a part of me gets sad. I think I will miss the intimacy and community that came from planning together so closely.

But there is hope. One of the major foundations of our school is the permission to try. The permission to change. The permission to reflect on it, alter it and try it again. I think there was something special about last week and I believe that my school community will allow me (and my colleagues if they feel the same) to take what was beautiful about last week and incorporate it into our future. That, I believe, is what leaves me with the twinkle in eye.

Day 4: What I love about teaching

Variety

Kids

Great colleagues

Learning

Moments that bring together my efforts to plan and their efforts to learn

Moments when I can step back and watch the learning happening without my guidance or interference

Moments when I learn something important because of my students