Pecha Kucha: Finding My Why

Pecha Kucha: Finding My Why

After being shifted around a little bit at the beginning of my teaching career, I had settled into a position as a third grade teacher.   I was in a wonderful, close-knit neighborhood school.  I worked with dedicated and supportive teachers. My daughter was a kindergartener there.   I was happily moving along in my teaching career, and I would have loved to stay there forever.   

But then three years ago, after 6 years in my position, my principal walked in my classroom with a sad look on her face and closed the door behind her.  “You’re being involuntarily transferred,” she said. My district was expanding their Dual Language Immersion program, and I had the certification that was needed.   So off I went to a different school, teaching a different grade, and in a new program.  

I dove in though and had a positive attitude about it.  Who knows, maybe I would grow to love teaching in the DLI program?  At a new school.  In a new grade.  So that summer I eagerly met and planned with my new teaching partner- the Spanish teacher.  I planned for having two groups of  second graders.  Fifty sets of parents.  I grappled with the idea of breaking my time up with each group into just 2.5 hours per day.  2.5 hours per day.  I thought about the ways that I would have to alter my teaching style to meld cohesively with my new teaching partner.  

About halfway through my school year, I realized that being a DLI teacher was not for me.  One of my biggest struggles was feeling like I didn’t know my students.  Like really know them.  I didn’t know about what they like to do after school.  I didn’t know about the squabbles they had with their siblings the night before.  I didn’t know them.   At least not the way I knew my students in a traditional classroom where I have the same 20 students all day everyday.  And I really missed that.  

So towards the end of the year, an opportunity came up for me to move out of my position.  A middle school math interventionist position opened up and I took it. It was scary.   I only taught in the middle school for one year- my first year.  But I was up for the challenge.  I like to push myself out of my comfort zone every once in a while.   I was very excited to try this out. I loved the idea of teaching math all day.  

Jumping from teaching 2nd and 3rd grade to teaching 7th and 8th graders was different.  Very different.  But I enjoyed it.  I enjoyed the kids, the content.  The hours...I was getting out of school everyday by 2 PM and was loving it!  The workload felt lighter.  I really couldn't complain.  Although I did.   I saw my middle schoolers every other day for  just a short while.  I still missed the connections that I just loved with my students.  I really wanted to know my students.  

At the end of that school year, our teacher’s union made changes to how teachers can move positions, and I was able to get back to Elementary, teaching in 3rd grade, in a monolingual classroom.  My ideal.  And when my third graders walked through the door on the first day of school this past September I got goosebumps.  I knew I made the right decision and that I was in the right place.  I loved going to school everyday and savored the moments when I felt that I was making a connection with a student.   I got to know so much about my students- how they were as children and how they were as learners.  And I think that made me a better teacher.  I felt so grateful to be able to go to work everyday and spend time with these amazing children.  Learning together, connecting, having fun.  And I was getting paid for it. My heart was full.  And what a great year we were having.  I never once felt like I was working.  I was so grateful to go to a job that I loved everyday.

Then the pandemic hit.  And schools were closed.  We were kept out of our classrooms and away from each other.  The month of April was mostly a blur for me.  But May...May I was just sad.  It took me a while to put my finger on exactly why.  In the middle of the night (aka insomnia) is when I do my best introspection, and I realized again what I was missing.  I was missing my students.  I missed their smiling faces coming through the door each morning, eager to tell me a story about something that happened the night before.  I wasn’t finding my new role as a distance learning teacher fulfilling. And as I prepared for my Google Meets each morning, for the first time in my 11 years of teaching, I felt like I was going to work everyday.   

I feel like with each different position I have had over the last few years I have been getting closer and closer to discovering just what it is about teaching that does it for me...what makes me excited, enthusiastic, and fulfilled. During the pandemic and distance learning, I got even closer to discovering it.  It wasn’t until this class and all the thought provoking readings and discussions that I discovered what it was .  Simon Sinek calls it my Why.  I have finally discovered my Why.  And if you know your why, then you can be intentional about your actions.  According to Simon Sinek, “Your beliefs determine your actions.”  

I believe that children need to feel safe.  I believe that children need to feel connected.  I believe that children learn when teachers create an environment where they feel safe and are connected to their teacher and to one another.  

Mike Wesch in his The Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance, he quoted two researchers, Postman and Weingartner, in saying that “ the environment (or medium) of learning is more important than the content (the message), and therefore teachers should begin paying more attention to the learning environment they help to create.”  

They say hindsight is 20/20. If I could go back in time to my most recent couple of years teaching, I would.  Knowing my why, I would have done things differently.  Knowing that building relationships is my key, I would have made building connections my primary focus.  Content would come after that.  

Before distance learning, I was a novice with Google Classroom.  And my kids were too.  It was quite the learning curve for all of us.  I really just used it as a way to push out assignments.   Since discovering my why,  I looked into Google Classroom more to see if I could use it in a different way.   I learned that it has features that make making connections in an online format easier. So now that I know my why, I need to make sure that what I do as a teacher is aligned to what I believe.

When we return to school in the Fall - either online, in person, or a little of both- I will not be using Google Classroom solely as a way to push out assignments. I intend to use Google Classroom as a tool for building relationships with my students, and for them to be able to connect with each other.   There are a number of features of Google Classroom that will allow me to do just that.  

One feature is the Private and Class Comments.  With these features I will be able to have a digital conversation with individual students. Students will also be able to comment publicly in the Class Comments, and students can respond to one another.  I used the Private Comments feature during distance learning to provide feedback to students, but I rarely ever heard back from them.  Going forward, I would teach students how to use it  and to expect to see feedback from me.  I will also phrase my feedback to prompt a response from them.  

 In the brick and mortar classroom, I used to have a whiteboard question of the day.  I would write a question on the board each morning and students would respond in one or two words.  They served as discussion starters throughout the day.  We learned so much about each other with this daily ritual.  Why not go digital?  I can do the same thing by posing a question of the day in the stream.  Students can read and respond to each other's comments digitally, just like they would in the classroom.  

Ask A Question is another feature of Google Classroom that I will be using. I can do digital exit slips, and ask questions like, How was your day today?  Or, How did that assignment go for you?  The multiple choice option would give me a quick snapshot of how kids were feeling and I could intervene if necessary to provide support or encouragement.   

Another thing I could do consistently would be to record a short video, giving students all the directions  they would need to complete an assignment.  This would allow me to use our precious live meeting times for other things, such as sharing and connecting, rather than using our Google Meet time to go over assignment directions.  Plus, kids can always go back and re-watch the video when they (inevitably) forget the directions I gave the first time.  

Finally,  Google Classroom is linked to Google Drive.  So if it’s in my Drive I can easily add it to my Classroom.  Saving me time and freeing me up to do the things that matter.  The things that really impact students and their learning.  Technology does not make learning better.  It’s the reason why teachers use  it that makes the difference in learning.