At the beginning of the school year I am willing to admit, I struggled. You see for me this was completely new. The little guy venturing upwards and onwards into Middle School. It was, and at times still is frightening. There are days of great successes and times when I wonder why I left my familiar world of little hugs and tater tots, my affectionate name for the kids, not the lunchtime side dish. For the record, those are good too.
In teaching, I often find myself wanting to push boundaries and try new things. I am lively, loud, and regularly positive. To some this can be off putting or come across as arrogant, so in my experience it takes time and consistency to earn respect. The last week has been great for that. Two separate stories, from two separate social studies teachers I have come to like and respect very much.
The first came out of a small two day workshop I ran after school on Classflow. Talk about intimidating. I am trying to encourage teachers to give the program a shot, since most are using Active Inspire already. Turnout was about what I expected, so no complaints here. A friend from the Social Studies department came to both sessions and seemed eager to give it a shot late last week. After our second period class, a former student of mine in 5th grade passed me in the hall and said, “Mr. Renard, we used Classflow in history today. My teacher forgot to put us in classes but it was still cool.” Oh no! Tech can be hard, and if it doesn’t work some will walk away quickly. I raced down to my colleague's room. “How’s it going?”
“Good, I didn’t have them in classes. But I worked it out.” She quickly explained and in my head I did the Perfect Strangers dance of joy (how many get that reference, Adam?).
She later reported the lesson getting better each time she used it. I was so proud and excited for her. It was also really encouraging to me.
In teaching, I often find myself wanting to push boundaries and try new things. I am lively, loud, and regularly positive. To some this can be off putting or come across as arrogant, so in my experience it takes time and consistency to earn respect. The last week has been great for that. Two separate stories, from two separate social studies teachers I have come to like and respect very much.
The first came out of a small two day workshop I ran after school on Classflow. Talk about intimidating. I am trying to encourage teachers to give the program a shot, since most are using Active Inspire already. Turnout was about what I expected, so no complaints here. A friend from the Social Studies department came to both sessions and seemed eager to give it a shot late last week. After our second period class, a former student of mine in 5th grade passed me in the hall and said, “Mr. Renard, we used Classflow in history today. My teacher forgot to put us in classes but it was still cool.” Oh no! Tech can be hard, and if it doesn’t work some will walk away quickly. I raced down to my colleague's room. “How’s it going?”
“Good, I didn’t have them in classes. But I worked it out.” She quickly explained and in my head I did the Perfect Strangers dance of joy (how many get that reference, Adam?).
She later reported the lesson getting better each time she used it. I was so proud and excited for her. It was also really encouraging to me.
The second part of this story comes from a different Social Studies teacher. We serve bathroom duty between lunch periods. Monday she looked at me and said, “It is gorgeous outside, we should go outside. How can we get outside?” Suddenly, in my head the Dave Burgess (@burgessdave on Twitter) Pirate light kicked on.
“Well, what are you talking about in class?” Westward expansion was her reply. We batted a few ideas back and forth and she seemed very excited about her outdoor lesson. In truth, I was really excited for her and her class (and jealous I couldn’t participate. I miss multiple subjects sometimes). I caught up with her a few times during the day for updates. Each time she shared that it was going well, finishing the day with a funny story about a student's suggestion to go Westward to West Hall, the other building of our campus. We laughed. It was a lot of fun.
These two, and others are making me feel much more like part of the team and I really appreciate them for it. As I heard Principal El (@Principal_EL on Twitter) say recently in an interview with the guys at Kids Deserve It, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Reach out and be great.
“Well, what are you talking about in class?” Westward expansion was her reply. We batted a few ideas back and forth and she seemed very excited about her outdoor lesson. In truth, I was really excited for her and her class (and jealous I couldn’t participate. I miss multiple subjects sometimes). I caught up with her a few times during the day for updates. Each time she shared that it was going well, finishing the day with a funny story about a student's suggestion to go Westward to West Hall, the other building of our campus. We laughed. It was a lot of fun.
These two, and others are making me feel much more like part of the team and I really appreciate them for it. As I heard Principal El (@Principal_EL on Twitter) say recently in an interview with the guys at Kids Deserve It, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Reach out and be great.
