the return: part 2

Leader

This year has been a huge year for curriculum creation. My team requested that I create a set of lessons and quizzes for each of our major standards to prepare students for content beyond their history curriculum. Seventh grade, in particular, needs the learning and review ahead of their CMAS testing in the spring to be able ready to show their best.

The process has been long and grueling at times, overwhelming at others. The good thing is it should only be one year of development and tweaks after that. I’ve leaned into using our new textbooks and curricula to help make the process easier, but there’s still been a lot of development.

This year I also took on a teaching fellow to mentor. The struggle was not with the fellow, but getting to actually train her. She started the year in one long term sub position, only to be swept up into another one after a few weeks of being with me, then a short term stint, then a three month coverage to finish the year. While I should have had my fellow in my classroom for at least 60% of the year, I only had her teaching in my room for 16% (I tracked and calculated).

On the plus side, her knowledge of the school culture, her multiple opportunities to get real teaching time in, and her unflappable demeanor with kids really made her a great member of staff. Her easy coachability made our time together incredibly effective. She learned by doing and taking on habits that I’ve developed over long periods of time from the start. She’s still young and a bit green, but she’s taking on teaching roles with well. The next lessons will be being a teacher leader, interacting with families, and holding herself to high standards and meeting them. I believe we’ll see mistakes, but I also believe she’s up to the task and can learn from those mistakes.

The real “at-bats” for me as a mentor teacher this year were less in coaching and more in advocacy with administration. I think the worst aspect of the situation was that my fellow wasn’t give the time and training she was owed by the program and I spoke that fact many times. It was tough and I had to give hard feedback, but I actually feel like I had some positive impact and helped in the continued development of the program. It increased my confidence in my impact on school leadership and programming in a very different way than my past experiences. It helped me be a better curriculum lead and teacher. I was glad that I could take away something so positive from a situation that was rife with difficulty.

Next year, I’ll be a mentor again. I’m looking forward to the challenge, adjusting to a new mentee, and continuing to fight for the time I really need and owe to my mentee (if necessary).