The right line

Rosebro1 has been doing A LOT of driving lately. If we are going out to eat, he drives us around like an Uber driver. If we are going to church, he drives us. If I need to run an errand, he is my first mate. You get it…he drives everywhere. The great part of this is I have someone to run small errands for me, but the really great part is I have a partner to go with me everywhere I go (and as the mother of teenage boys, this is a new experience for me).  Last week, we had to go to the dreaded Walmart-sorry to offend anyone, but I really, truly try not to go to Walmart if possible. Part of the reason I despise going is no matter if I go at 6am on a Monday morning or 12pm on a Saturday afternoon, there are never enough cash registers open.  So, on this day, Rosebro and I found the 3 items we could only purchase at Walmart and as it would be found only a few lines were open and they were all really, really long. This is when we decided to divide and conquer.  He stood in one line and I in the other. We waited to see who would progress in the line quicker and whoever made it to the front first, the other would join them in line.  While I waited patiently, I watched the elderly cashier in charge of my line. She was so sweet and was carrying on conversations with the customers and the kids in the cart. I’ve seen her before in my early morning Walmart visits. She is so nice and friendly and kind. She once even told me that Family Dollar carried one of my items at a cheaper price.  As it would have it, Rosebro1’s line went faster so I exited my line and quickly joined him.  And we got through quickly. Yet, Rosebro1’s cashier was, well, downright rude. As a lover of Mother Earth, I always have my own bags with me. Although Rosebro 1 told her that, she put our 3 little items in a bag, and when I reiterated that I had my own bag, she rolled her eyes and rather curtly took the items out of the Walmart bag and slammed them on the lazy Susan bag area.  I ignored this. I was paying with my debit card and put it in the chip reader. The card reader which was not very steady fell down and when doing so my card fell out of reader. She watched this, again rolled her eyes, and then yelled at me when I put my card back in the reader (apparently, she needed to do something on her register before I put my card back in). I quickly finished our transaction, but couldn’t shake the experience.

Rosebro1 and I discussed this in the car. I explained that my cashier was sweet and kind and is every single time I’ve been in her line, she has always been kind. I explained that I really liked her. He countered with the fact that she was slower than the rude cashier. I couldn’t disagree with him. It made me wonder- Why can’t I have the same experience in each line no matter who is the cashier?

And as with anything I thought about school.  I guess the same can be said about our students. Should not every student experience the same level of instruction, relationship, tactical teaching, and high level of planning and reflection as every other student? Many books have been written on this subject so this really isn’t a new idea. I know that some days are better than others for each of us…and I know that each of us are at different places along our journey of teaching. Yet, one thing that should never be different is the way a student feels in our classroom. As Rita Pierson so beautifully articulated, “Everyone child deserves for one person to be their champion.”  Our kids deserve to come to school and know that they are going to get smiles, high fives, secret handshakes, big hugs,and someone so excited to see them that they might just burst. Our kids deserve us to WANT to be here because we are so excited about teaching the youth of our generation.

I would challenge; however, that this is only part of the experience. A student’s learning experience should not differ from one classroom to the next. A student should be getting the most highly thoughtful learning experience no matter which room they have been assigned to during the summer months. How can this happen?  I value three approaches. The first is a high level of collaboration. I love walking on a grade level’s hallway during planning. I do this a lot. I do this to see what type of collaboration is happening-naturally. I don’t do this on PLC days or IB reflection days, but on teacher planning days. It always saddens me to see a closed classroom door. That closed door says so much and is louder to me than the items being slammed on the Lazy Susan at the Walmart. Teachers must collaborate-not plan-but collaborate about learning and teaching. This requires honesty about struggles and being open to others’ successes.  The second approach is PLC. We use our PLC not as a chance to take away your planning, but as a way to really learn. But how can we use that hour to listen to our highly trained coach and to each other and then go back into our classroom and pull out the same lesson plans that we’ve done for many years? The third approach is accountability.  We have to be accountable to ourselves, our school, our students, and our coworkers. Accountability isn’t a “gotcha”. Accountability is a check in to ensure you’re on the right track-you’re doing the right things. When we are held accountable, we don’t mind questions, we don’t mind visitors, we don’t mind trying new things and throwing away old things. We are; however, only accountable when we know the expectations. The expectations is the “why”. Why are we doing this? Why is this important?

As we turn the page to 2018 and the 2^nd semester of school, I challenge each of you to ask yourself if you’re the best “line” to be in…not the fastest line that gets the one job done, not the line where relationships are great, but the work isn’t getting done, but the line that does it all exceptionally well. The line that we all want, the line that we all wish we could be in every single time….our kids deserve it…..but so do you….because when you’re the most effective teacher you can be, it is the most amazing feeling.  And you deserve that.