SCHOOL SUPPORT: CONTINUOUS COACHING
“When a teacher goes to the school, it's the school's job to provid training, like during summer P.D. ‘Hey, this happened in the classroom last June’. ‘This is what you will feel in this demographic’—because every school is so different. I think it goes back to the system of training in schools when people are onboarded, when there are new teachers. Even here—I was a a seventh year teacher. When I came here I was treated like a first year teacher and I was glad because they had a whole different system. They do standards-based grading (…) So I was sitting in a room with twenty-one year-olds and I was happy because we were all being trained on how to do standards-based grading—because I didn't know it. So I got the support. I was twenty-nine. I'm glad I got it because I love it. There's that assumption—'Oh, it's a vet, so we let them be’. Vets still need help, too (…) Now I still have a coach. I still meet with her weekly and I think it's that constant support that a lot of schools don't provide. And then teachers feel alone.”
“I CAN ONLY DO WHAT’S IN MY CONTROL”
“I think part of it, too, is that as I got older I realize I can't fix everyone (…) I can only do what's in my control. And I think that's part of when you are twenty-three, in your first year of teaching, it's all or none--all these kids need to pass under my watch because I'm the teacher, I went through this whole program, it's all on me. And there's this huge responsibility.”
MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT
“My school actually provides two things—One, our insurance covers telemedicine for therapy, which I think is crucial. And the second is that they give us premium access to this app called Headspace . It's meditation and all of that. Of course you don't have to do it all, but just knowing that your place of work cares about you not burning out is the difference.”
“I have support. Because, you know, some days my kids are super-caffeinated sugar-high. But at the end of the day, when the clock ends and the kids leave, I know there is support.”
CONNECTION, SUPPORT & VALIDATION
“You have to be in a building where they're not just getting a paycheck. I think the biggest thing (…) is that in a lot of schools they have tenure and my school does not. I'm not saying I'm anti tenure, but I'm saying in certain schools, if you don't have tenure, there's this automatic increase in motivation because your job is on the line. I think that goes back to accountability—how is your school being run? How (…) do we get check-ins on our lessons?”
“Here we do something, it's called ‘Glow and Grow’ [where we’re told] ‘Here's a glow and here's a grow’ each week (…) As a teacher you're like, ‘I know it's not always going to be perfect, but at least I did something right’. And we get that from multiple people. So I have a principal, I have a coach, and then I'm in the middle school, and we're attached to the high school—so I actually have a boss and then a super-boss, and then a mega-boss. But they all connect.”
“In my school, I can go to the principal. We then have the head of school, who is in charge of the high school and middle school. And now we have the executive director who oversees all the operations and the money. They're all in the same hallway. I can go down this hallway right now and I can show you all three of their offices. They're in the same wing.”