Ripples

Back in 2019, after reading Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead, I went through the challenging task of discovering my two words. She says that once you know your two values, you can start reflecting on your life’s decisions from those two perspectives. I have, for the most part, only turned to remembering those values I pulled from a list of over 160 when I’m caught in a “not good enough” funk.

The two values I got at that time, and I continue to recognize as mine, are growth and giving back.

If you think about my current/new job at school, it’d be easy to understand why this year is one of the best in my career so far.

For a few years, I didn’t feel like I was doing much growing. Both values were on a see-saw, and giving back was getting the best of the ride. In fact, It felt like I wasn’t doing much growing because most of me was being given to others—not a terrible thing if you consider the honest, rewarding feelings of seeing another teacher reach the well-known “aha moment.”

When I stepped into an office back in August, I went back to my Brené notes, her audiobook, and favorite quotes and made her presence a constant. I knew I’d need her guidance along the way. I also decided to shine a light on growth. It felt like their turn to go up the see-saw and provide some perspective. I told Tim the other day, “I get to learn a lot by coaching/watching other teachers. It’s like a subtle discovery of new shades of teaching.”

Most think that I’m in this position because of what I know, and might be surprised to learn how I truly see the impact of my work with them: when I talk to them about teaching students something, I say, “How can we make sure we can gradually minimize the help we provide? If our teaching is impactful and explicit enough, we can see those ripples go out every time they apply something you taught.”

Those ripples, the transformation of Show me how to I can do this on my own, and then I can show someone else how to do it. That is the effect I aim for. When I’m asked to do a demo in a classroom, I’m happy to do it, and my hope is that soon they won’t need me that much. This job is about supporting teachers, and the goal I have set for myself is to be needed less and less.

After a semester of doing, implementing, and proposing, I want to get up from the minilesson rug and watch them work independently. I want to confer, push, and remove scaffolds. Watch the ripples go out and away.