Teachers Supporting Each Other
For the past five months, Marilyn Robb (the International Commonality Reference Person for Educational Change) has been leading a monthly support group for classroom teachers. Fifteen to twenty of us gather to connect and share. Marilyn reminds us that we are doing good work, that we are thoughtful and powerful, and that we get to keep fighting for ourselves, our students, and our students’ families. Each month I’m reminded that I am not doing this work alone; that worldwide, Co-Counselors who are classroom teachers are trying to prioritize their health and their relationships.
Here is what I’ve been doing with the teachers at my school:
For months I had been reminding colleagues that we teachers matter, that we get to take care of and prioritize ourselves, and that it’s the oppressive society that makes this hard.
Then the administrators at my school announced plans to move from distance (online only) learning to “hybrid learning” (each grade would be on campus once a week and online the other days). The teachers had a variety of reactions: quiet, visibly upset, outraged. I decided to hold a weekend Zoom meeting for us to connect and listen to one another.
We started by sharing non-work-related “news and goods.” Then everyone had two minutes to share their thinking about hybrid learning. In the next round, we shared what we would like to have in place so that hybrid learning could work well for us. Then we wrote down some of our feelings, to share with the teachers who were not at the meeting and with our administrators:
- Feelings of letting others down [disappointing others] and not being seen as a team player if we wanted to prioritize our health. This was complicated by the friendships some teachers had with some of the administrators. I said that we get to support each other to do what makes sense for ourselves.
- Feelings of powerlessness. People felt that they had no choice but to return to in-person work. I reminded them that we always have choices and that we get to figure out what makes the most sense for ourselves. We concluded that the administration’s choices weren’t what we wanted, and we thought of additional options.
- Feelings of disappointment that our administration wasn’t leading us the way we wanted. I shared that our administrators wanted to work with us; that they were good, hard-working people; and that we could like and respect them.
The teachers created a group chat to stay connected. I texted or messaged individuals every step of the way to ensure that everyone had the information and input they wanted. With only fourteen of us, that was manageable.
In the end, all fourteen of us signed a document that we shared with our administrators, and we were able to reach agreement in regard to hybrid teaching.
One result of our effort has been a weekly teachers’ support group. We have met twice. It’s been great. We take timed turns and share successes and challenges. We just listen; we don’t offer advice or suggest solutions. I always remind the group that what we do is hard, that we are good at it, and that we are not alone.
Seattle, Washington, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders of educational change
(Present Time 203, April 2021)