Day 2: 2017 April Blog A Day Challenge - Teaching Wins: Growth

Prompt: Teaching Win: Where have you grown the most this year?

I am in my last semester of completing my a second MSED in Leadership (School and District).  There are a multitude of moving parts this year both in and out of the classroom as I fulfill graduation requirements as well as course work on top of keeping up with the day to day teaching of three different English classes.  Needless to say, it is a lot and I am working far beyond my capacity.  I knew this year would not be my best work in the classroom, but I always go into an experience hoping to learn, stretch my thinking, and leaving with new insight into the hows and whys of any job I am doing.

Image via HERE

This semester I am working with a Algebra II ICT co-teaching partnership.  The pair are an exceptional example of strong ebb and flow when it comes to team teaching.  The content teacher, a young woman in her second year, joined out staff this year. In addition to asking her to take on learning the new CC Algebra II curriculum, we also challenged all out teachers with continuing to design and integrate mastery based assessment and learning into their practice.  

Working with teachers outside of my content is always something that I have felt less than comfortable doing. I also always wondered about (questioned/challenged?) the ability of a school leader to effectively coach/observe teachers who did not share their content.  In making the move to work with a team outside of my content area this semester, it has already begin to help me to grow and see how my 10 years of experience as well as the work I have done in #TTOG and moving to MBA has made me a strong thinking partner for the pair.  It is exciting to see their thinking and evolution and hearing the great questions they have about MBA in their own practice.       

So, for me, this year I think my greatest area of growth as an educator has been in gaining a new awareness of the power and possibilities of coaching and how truly successful coaching is about unlocking and helping to develop potential.