Loneliness is subjective, meaning that it's about how connected you feel to others, not necessarily how many friends you have or how often you are around people. Teaching is a lonely profession. Even though you spend most of the day in a room with upwards of 30 other people, those are young humans. Spending quality time with other adults, as a teacher, is rare. Of course, I've had many deep conversations with a six-year-old, but it’s not the same as engaging with your peers.
I heard a veteran teacher say to a brand-new educator, “Teaching will become your identity. Once you are a teacher, you are a teacher 24/7,” and “the people in this school are my family.” This line of comments raised a few eyebrows and turned a few heads in the room. Obviously, this isn’t true at all for many of us, but she had a point. Because teaching is so lonely, you do put a lot of value on the other grownups in the building.
Depending on the size of the school, there can be around 50 adults present in the building at any given time. Although the teacher’s role is the most important, it is also near impossible to be an effective educator without those 49 other people.
Grade Level Teams
As a teacher, you will spend most of your non-instructional time with members of your grade level team. These folks work together on most administrative tasks. Often grade level teams commit to a shared responsibility for the students at that level. These teams plan together, analyze data together, and share strategies, resources, and students. The teachers on your grade level will also be your closest classroom neighbors. To have a functioning team, you have to have trust. I don’t have to invite you to my house on the weekends, but I do have to believe that I can lean on you when I need support.
Administration
These school leaders can make or break any teaching experience. When teachers leave a school or the profession entirely, they often say, “It wasn’t the kids, it was the adults.” A school principal sets the tone for the entire campus. What they value becomes the climate and culture of the school. Phew, I’ve worked for some really shitty administrators. Most of them were probably good people outside of school, but many of them suffered from a terrible amnesia that made them forget what it was like to be a teacher. One of the reasons they forget is the absolute mountain of work they have to do. When you are a ‘good’ teacher, administration generally leaves you alone; they’ve got bigger fish to fry.
Front Office Staff
Nothing gets done in a school without going through the front office staff. If you need a file, key, or pencil, you gotta go through them. They know where everything and everyone is at any given time. It is your best bet to get to know the front office staff as quickly as you can. I hate gatekeeping, but these gatekeepers are essential. They are the first people you see in the morning and the last people you see on your way out in the afternoon. They also know every family. They know every secret. They know every work around. And, in a place where knowledge is currency, these folks are the wealthiest.
Custodial Staff
Truly, the nicest, most wonderful people in the school are your custodial team. We often take things for granted, like toilet paper or empty trash bins, but without the custodians, the building would fall into chaos and disrepair by lunchtime. Generally, custodians aren’t big on chit-chat; they are always on their way from one place to another, putting out fires along the way. They are masters of the trade and can handle the most bizarre of situations with ease. I remember the time a student threw my spare keys onto the roof. They were in my mailbox with a new keychain by the time I left for the day. Custodians work in shifts. The night crew, whom you only get a glimpse of maybe once per year, perform miracles every evening. They move through the building in the dark of night, ensuring everything is in its place come the following morning.
Special Teams
In the US, K-12 education is compulsory and universal publicly. "The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children." As a result of the passage of IDEA, public schools provide students with special needs additional support in the form of special education teachers, psychologists, audiologists, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and counseling services. In an inclusive classroom, the general education teacher will work closely with members of a student's special team to ensure the conditions of their Individualized Education Program (IEP) are met. I have had the distinct pleasure of working with some truly exceptional special educators. Their bag of tricks is deep. I’ve learned dozens, if not hundreds, of strategies from special educators that I’ve used with all learners, young and old.
Specialists
The reason why teachers have a preparation period at all is that their students are at specials. Every day your students get time with another teacher to learn about the arts, technology, fitness, and literacy. Although you get to see the specialists in the halls, you likely don’t spend a whole lot of time with them. I’ve found that one of the greatest powers of the specialists is giving teachers a nugget of insight into particular students. If the music teacher knows that a student loves to sing, the classroom teacher can leverage that to increase the child’s interest and engagement. If the physical education teacher notices a student is a bit sluggish, the classroom teacher can offer that student a snack to perk them up. All the tiny interactions with the specialists make for a well-rounded understanding of each unique student.
Strategists
Learning strategists get a lot of hate. Before I was a coach, I had no idea what they did all day. These off-ratio teachers, who don’t have students assigned to them, wear many hats. Their greatest value is in peer-to-peer coaching. They can provide you with resources, professional development, and modeling. Unfortunately, if administration doesn’t position them correctly, they can whittle away a teacher’s will. A strategist is most impactful when they have rapport and trust. That trust can waver depending on how close the strategist is to acting like a pseudo-administrator. I learned more my first year as a coach than I did the previous five. This insight came largely due to my ability to spend time in multiple classrooms. As a teacher, you spend all day in your classroom; as a strategist, you spend all day in other people’s classrooms. It’s never enough to know how you would do things; you need to know how others might approach a challenge.
It’s truly a beautiful thing to see the adults in a school working together in full service and support of one another. A school with too many adult concerns can’t meet the needs of the students. I recently met with a grade level team to discuss norms. To minimize the potential of ongoing storming, norming is essential. When teams are stable, they can manage conflict and disagreement, and devote their energy to student success. No matter the situation, there is usually someone wiser than you on a team. And, for a hundred different reasons, that wisdom can remain unspoken. Ego, distrust, and low expectation can unravel a team in an instant. To my earlier point, you don’t have to be best friends, but you do have to respect and value one another to avoid being crushed by your workplace expectations. Teaching is a lonely profession, but it’s better when you can laugh, struggle, and persevere together.
🔗All That and a Bag of Chips
Delight № 43 - Watching a racist shake like a leaf.
Delight № 44 - Connecting with an old friend.
Delight № 45 - Shopping with points.
🔗Read This
Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning by Audrey Watters
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