I haven’t posted for a while, but I’m going to have to be OK with that.

My desire for my blog is to chronicle through photos, interviews and a few short words, what amazing teachers are doing to “teach with soul”.

I’m still working on this. Looking for teachers who are willing to allow me to photograph them as they teach great lessons. Then talking with them about how they keep their passion. I’ve found a few and hope to have them up soon.

Today is different though. Today I’ve decided to share my response to a young,  new, would be teacher who posted on an education website that they are “Losing hope”…

The teacher will remain anonymous, but the cry for help is so typical of many,young, creative, enthusiastic  teachers I’ve met over the years.  Starting their careers passionate about teaching, only to be cut off at the knees by one simple fact: the lack of a mentor who is willing to support, guide and inspire.

The teacher starts the post by saying that they had a dream. A dream to be the best teacher they could be. To be the kind of teacher that students would be in inspired by. Unfortunately, there were no clear expectations set for this teacher, and worse, no support. This teacher’s perception was that they would be supported, as a first year teacher. Not an unfair expectation by any means. Instead they were placed in a “sink or swim” position. So this teacher sank. And so did my heart…This is absolutely not what you do to new teachers.

Here is the response that I posted to this young teacher who asked for “positive and encouraging words”:

When I read your words, “I believe I was under the illusion that I had support and help from all angles, when in reality, I hadn’t felt more alone and lost.” My heart went out to you. I was an elementary school principal for 14 years. During those years consistently spent time mentoring, supporting, guiding my teachers. If you read the research on why young people like yourself leave the teaching profession, it turns out that it is exactly for those reasons you describe. A school should work to foster a culture where its teachers collaborate and learn from one another. This is at the heart of how educators grow as professionals. However, some of my administrative colleagues still struggle with this piece. We need to do so much better.
I entered the teaching profession at 24 as a Kindergarten teacher. I was fortunate to have come from a long line of educators. However, even with this “DNA” I still encountered a great deal of frustration and anxiety in my first year. I too am a VERY creative person, and I had many ideas about how I wanted to teach my class. I quickly learned, by observing the culture of my school, and having to share a classroom, that I had to harness that creativity into focused, structured, well designed lesson plans. I did so by incorporating those creative ideas in such a way that measurable outcomes were clear and evident. This meant including assessments of my Kinders, even “back in the day”. I used a few highly recommended teaching tools from my Child Development course work. As well as others that were recommended to me. I also asked to “observe” other teachers at my school to get a feel for, once again, the culture of the school and what was going to be expected of me. I lived and breathed “teaching” those first few years, and spent nights and weekends reading, creating, planning, all things “Kinder”.
The kicker is I too felt very alone, as I did not have a supportive principal, or mentor colleague. My kinder team member was an older woman who believed in “kill and drill” for Kindergarten kids and I was mortified! In addition to that, no one on staff had a Child Development degree. These teachers were folks who had liberal arts majors, how then decided that teaching looked good, so they jumped on the band wagon. As a result they were not pleased when I began to talk about child development issues and how those directly influenced how children learn and should be allowed to develop. How students should be allowed to use hands-on learning opportunities, not paper pencil tasks. This, was not well received at all. The bottom line is that my first few years were rough!
What made me stick it out? I held on to my dream ,desire and passion. I held on to the knowledge that I knew the research about what was good for children. I didn’t give up, even when 6 of my 8 K teacher team talked about me behind my back. Did I have a mentor teacher? No. Was it hard? Extremely. But I kept pressing forward because I believed in my self and cared deeply for my students.
We know so much more now about how to retain and support new teachers. The research is very clear and you need a good mentor (or two). You don’t have to stick it out alone, nor should you. There is a wealth of opportunity for on-line mentoring support. Tons of  great education websites, groups, blogs, Twitter and fabulous books. A “real” person/team supporting you on site is the ideal. I urge you to seek that out and do not see it as a “sign of weakness”. It will be your strength. In the meantime, I extend a hand to you, as a “creative” tenured educator, if you’d like an on-line mentor. This is my passion. I currently mentor a young, would be teacher in So Cal. We meet for coffee and talk “teacher” stuff. It’s great fun! We both thoroughly enjoy it and I’m able to share my resources with her.
So…I’m here to offer help and HOPE. Don’t let this one difficult experience defeat you. You are not alone in the “tunnel”. The light is just up ahead. It’s time to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back in the game! I can hear them calling your name!