3 Lessons From Kim

It’s 9:22 PM, and I can feel every drop of energy drain as I tap the keys. But I don’t want to miss this Tuesday slice, even if it’s not really a single slice that brings me here.

Kim walked toward the door as we wrapped up our rushed afternoon meeting. When you only get “45 minutes” to ask questions, rehearse ideas, share opinions, and jot down decisions, you have to thread culminating thoughts on foot because a class awaits to be picked up from PE. I didn’t let her leave before asking her this question, though:

“How much will you need from me moving forward?”

I held that question in my mind when I drove to school this morning. Elena’s sudden car nap made me pull over on Calle 8 to let her recharge before a busy day, and I thought that would be a good time to start today’s post. I wrote a few lines about getting myself in an “overextended” situation with every single coaching cycle, [massive] school-wide initiatives, and all the support I’m offering in classrooms and writing new units for several grades. I wrote a few lines and promised myself two things: 1) I would ask two people to release me from my coaching duties for a few weeks, and 2) I would not let Tuesday end without a blog post.

She tilted her head, smiled, and said she would at least like to keep our meetings, even if we meet every other week. Perfect, I thought. I just needed to drop one more. Then, I allowed myself to think of my sort of chaotic time coaching Kim and decided to come up with a “Top 3: What I Learned.”

1. If anything, what helps new writing teachers is to learn the ways to make lessons concrete. What am I asking students to do, and how should they go about doing that? What’s needed to “Go Concrete” isn’t fancy teaching guides or well-written lessons. All you need is confidence that You Know This Stuff.

2. Our students will care more about the work we expect of them when they see us “knee-deep” in it with them. Kim wrote for and with her students, and that genuine passion was palpable in her teaching.

3. I rely on “sketching” more than I thought. Many times, I found myself asking for a piece of blank paper to “draw” what was going through my head, but couldn’t yet explain with words. Kim asked me about the writing process, conferring strategies, progressions, and teaching scaffolds, and I needed to sketch my ideas to help us visualize them. It was a pretty cool discovery for me. Luckily, Kim was always smart enough to take her own notes and attach a photo of “mine.”

It’s 9:44 now. I feel the urge to reflect on my ongoing realization of being “overextended,” and my mind scrambles through ideas of how to prioritize my time. I know very well that it will mean saying no to people who can do fine without me.

Perhaps a good night’s sleep will help me with that tomorrow. For now, though, Thank You, Kim!