“What are you most excited to teach today?”
Has anyone ever asked you this question?
This week, I was in a meeting discussing the book The Connected Educator by Sheryl
Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall. The
discussion revolved around leadership, collegiality, and risk-taking. Much time was spent wondering what keeps us
from being high-performing, collegial teams with a shared mission and vision.
I was thinking about this again and thinking back on all the
new projects I have created in the last year.
And I was thinking about the people who supported me on the way with
these projects. And not just people who
have been supportive, but people who have been genuinely excited.
That’s when it hit me –
Who gets excited about what you are doing in the
classroom? I don’t mean your spouse,
significant other, or the students in your classroom. They “get it” already. They know how exciting your classroom
is. But do we get genuinely excited –
really get enthusiastic – about what our colleagues are doing on a day to day
basis?
Little kids tell us things because they think everyone will
be excited to hear it. But when adults
stop being excited by what children tell them, kids stop sharing so freely
and so excitedly. (Think about kids
losing teeth)
The same can be said of educators: If nobody’s going to be excited about what
I’m doing in my classroom, I’m not going to stop doing it - I know it’s good! Rather, I’m just not going to tell people
about it so much. It’s self-defense. And what good does that do for anyone? Shared mission requires a shared enthusiasm
about why we exist. Shared vision
requires a shared excitement about the future. And that starts with shared excitement that
builds trust on a day-to-day basis.
So how do we overcome this?
Perhaps we should go around to other teachers and say, “What are you
most excited to teach today? Tell me
about it!” and then make the time to
listen and share the excitement. We ask
students what the most exciting part of their day will be. We ask students what they are most excited to
learn. We need to ask each other what we
are most excited to teach.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent "challenge"!! I'm going to do this with some of the teachers in my building. I think we're all so overwhelmed with data, rigor and all the other things being tossed at us daily, that we forget the people that are in it with us!
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!
Cheryl
http://lukacmusicclass.blogspot.com