All Teachers Deserve Support

I've taken a long blog hiatus here - between moving (not far, but still) and starting a new school year, my time and energy have been consumed! But I am back, and I want to share something that has been on my mind lately.

All teachers deserve support.

Seems pretty simple, doesn't it? Our district strategic plan motto is "All together for all students." There's a lot of all in there, and I wish we could extend it to teachers. But the problem is, both locally and nationally, teachers' level of support varies greatly. There are a lot of different reasons for this, but I want to focus on one that has popped up in my world a lot: teachers get different support based on what subject they teach.

It's no secret that I spend a lot of time advocating for "specials" or "electives" - art, music, PE, theatre, and dance. You could even add other electives such as world languages and CTE courses in there! I believe that these classes are incredibly important to develop well-rounded human beings, and beyond that, they often are engagement hooks and the reason students are in school. After graduation, many students will follow these paths as hobbies or things they do in their free time - their education in these classes really influences their lives, and should be valued!

Yet we don't see a lot of that when it comes to teacher support.

• How many times has a whole staff been required to sit through a professional development meeting on LA or math? What about art or PE? (I can't count the number of times I was trained on a system or told I have to use it, only to find out it offered nothing for my subject area.)
• How many districts invest heavily in materials for science classes? What about for music class? Are instruments provided or only for the "elite" who can afford to get them? (True story: I applied for a job and was told that a prerequisite for registering for an instrumental music class was that the student could afford to rent or purchase an instrument because the school couldn't financially support that for students. I declined the job offer.)
• Have you ever seen a message, especially during the pandemic, that sounded like, "We are providing xxx support/lesson plans/curriculum resources for all teachers!" only to find out that "all" meant LA/math/science/SS only. (Yes. All the time.)

As a person who advocates for these often-forgotten areas at the district level, it's exhausting. I don't know how anyone does it for long without getting burned out. How can we change the status quo?

• What if we offered more flexible, customized professional development? Not only would it help specials and electives teachers, but I think all teachers could benefit from this! Some need exactly the training we have been offering. But some need something totally different.
• What if we gave teachers the tools they needed to do their job and let them focus on the instruction? I know, this is a pie in the sky ideal because budgets are involved, and money is tight. But I wish that my teachers could focus on how to best instruct the kids in their class rather than spending hours looking for or putting together their own materials because my district can't afford (or is not prioritizing) money to purchase materials for them. Somehow, it just never seems to be a priority for these subject areas.
• What if, when we say all, we truly meant all? This is just my plea to be careful in your communications. I don't believe we always need the same things, and sometimes it makes sense not to do the same thing for everyone - but please don't say all unless you truly mean all.

I feel like I spend every day as an advocate, and it's exhausting. As I recently told my coworkers, I can't do it alone. I need others to jump on board. I feel an incredible weight of responsibility as the one person on the instructional team with this type of background, and I feel like I carry so many voices of amazing teachers who just want to feel supported. I hope we can all come together to make it happen.

*I realize that this is just one of many issues - we could talk about so many other categories of people who experience similar disenfranchisement for other reasons, some even more serious. I by no means want to ignore that, but this is what is on my mind right here, right now, so it's what I'm writing about!

Nightmares

As a teacher, it wasn't unusual for me to start dreaming about my classroom in August as we returned from summer break, or right before a concert. Every now and then, a nightmare would pop up where I had lost children or where everything broke or some other absurd variation on what could go wrong. It's a common experience among teachers!

Although my position has changed, these nightmares still have a way of sneaking up on you. I can tell I've been more stressed about things lately, because I had my first "FTE nightmare" this week! And in keeping with my attentive #oneword2021, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on where this stress is coming from. Here are some of the things keeping me up at night...

• I'm worried about the future of all electives. Will we double down on math & literacy in an effort to "catch students up" and do so at the expense of the classes that round out their education?
• In particular, I'm worried about the future of music education. Singing events have led to the spread of the virus (although there are many factors to these events), and I fear that, in the court of public opinion, the risk just won't be worth it. Will students not sign up, or will schools not offer these classes?
• Then we come to the numbers game. In the electives world, your job is often determined by how many students sign up for your classes. Our enrollment is down across the board. Many students did not get the classes they signed up for this year due to schedule changes to make cohorts happen (they were just shoved into whatever elective class fit into their schedule). What impact will that have on next year?
• Speaking of that, budgets. What will the federal and state funding for public education look like? My state is known for the B.S. Factor (yes, that's what it's called, the Budget Stabilization Factor, or B.S. factor for short) which creates a deficit in funding public education in order to balance the budget. Less money from the state = hard decisions about what that means in schools.
• Which led to my nightmare. Of having to tell teachers that they are being let go or reassigned. And because our contract (similar to most) works on the basis of seniority, I dreamed about having to let go of some of our awesome teachers, who have created resources and shared and collaborated and worked like crazy to bring amazing content to our kids this year, because they happen to be lowest on the totem pole.
• I worry about the teachers I have the privilege to serve and lead. People are exhausted. Hanging on by a thread. Burned out. The spark, the joy of teaching is often muffled these days because teaching at boxes with profile pictures just isn't the same. And the asks are mounting. Vaccine distribution seems to be bringing hope, but we are continuing to exist in this heightened state of fear and alertness, and our bodies can only take so much of that. And then you add in concerns about job security. Will we make it?
• Ultimately, it comes back to our kids. I worry about their isolation, and also about the pressure they feel. These classes are connectors, they are places for kids who doesn't always do so well in academia to shine. They are often the highlight of a student's day. And with more information coming out about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and teens, with every new story about a suicide or overdose, I think about how important it is that we don't just push our kids back into an environment of focusing solely on academics. There are other, perhaps greater, needs that we must attend to as well.

Usually, I try to be pretty positive on this blog, and I don't mean to say that it is all gloom and doom. I have seen amazing things happen this year, and I know that some good has come out of all of this! But I can't deny that these concerns are a constant rumble of low-level stress, and as planning for next year begins, they are starting to bubble up more.

As I reflect personally, I think that my goal is to hold all of this in balance. It is important for me to have these thoughts and acknowledge them, because they lead to advocating for what I believe is right and making wise decisions for the things under my control. But I can't let the fears overtake my life or drown out the joy of a profession where we truly get to impact lives. My hope for all of you is that, whatever your nightmares and dreams are, you will be able to balance it and still find the joy!

Authentic Celebrations of Learning

This week, I had so much fun at our district high school art show reception. Along with the art show, we had a runway show to showcase the work of our students in the cosmetology program! It made me think about how powerful it is to have truly authentic celebrations of learning.

The students in the program had created headpieces made entirely out of hair! What an amazing display of artistic talent! The variety and detail was stunning! The students also did the (natural) hair and makeup for the models for the evening.

The runway was built by our construction program. Again - an authentic project to be used at an authentic event. Pretty cool!

The models were entirely professional - this wasn't some giggly kids show, but they had their walks choreographed and timed and looked amazing while doing it.

Authentic audience. That is one of the cornerstones of project-based learning, and it was on display this night. Before this, I had no idea that our cosmetology department engaged in projects like this. I didn't think much about our construction program! These are all a part of our Career & Technical Education (CTE) program, which sometimes isn't given the same weight as our traditional "academic" classes...but why?

It's important for kids to find their place and talents, and some of them clearly shined this night. I'm grateful that we had such an amazing and appreciative audience to cheer these kiddos on and a great venue to hold the show in!

How are YOU celebrating your students' creative talents? How often do they get to share with an authentic audience?

The Messages We Send

Leadership can be about what we say, but it is also about the culture we create through our actions. Think about the people who are leaders in your school or work setting. What do they do (or not do) that cultivates the culture of your group?

In my new leadership role, I've been thinking a lot about the messages my actions send.

I might be working on Saturday morning at 6am, but do I expect others to?

I really got this tip from a principal - when employees receive emails from their boss all evening or weekend, it puts out a subtle message or expectation that they should be working at all times. That is certainly not what I want to communicate! One of my peers said that she often starts an email with, "We all have different work habits, and this is my best time to get work done, but I don't expect you to be working at this time..." My favorite solution is Boomerang - I can write the emails whenever I want, and schedule them to send at a more reasonable hour :-).

As the one with the "title", it's up to me to set others at ease.

I was having a conversation with a first-year teacher, and they asked, "Can I call you Aubrey?" It didn't even occur to me that my teachers - who are adults - would wonder if it is okay to be on a first-name basis, yet I remember having similar thoughts when I began my career! This made me realize that people are looking to take their cues from me - I can actually make interactions more comfortable by introducing myself first, asking them to sit at this table, and just setting the tone so others aren't worried about things like, "Does it matter which side of the table I sit on?"

When a weekend event ends, do I stay to help clean up or leave?

Cleaning up isn't in my job description, and it's not exactly an expectation. But what does it communicate if I let others do the dirty work while I go enjoy my weekend? This is servant leadership at its finest - and if I want to be a servant leader, I need to show it.

If I see a teacher doing something awesome, do I share it?

One of the great things about my role is that I have a bigger megaphone. I can amplify others' voices and work. But if I never share the great work that happens, it doesn't matter how big my megaphone is - it still won't get out there! I have been trying to take the time to pause my busy day and snap/tweet that picture or write that email to a principal or other district leaders (whoever makes sense) about the amazing things our teachers & students are doing! It's not always easy...this is never an urgent task, and it can often go to the back burner...but we don't do enough celebrating or positive sharing in education.

Email.

Okay, this is a sore subject for many people, because it is just so hard to keep up! I attended a session about team-building with many people from our district office (who work in operations), and the thing that I kept hearing about building trust & teams was that people wanted follow-up, and quickly. They mentioned how much more they trusted someone who responded to emails right away as opposed to someone who took a few days to get a response from. Now, I would never advocate for being on your email all of the time, but this was eye-opening to me and actually made me prioritize emails a little higher on my to-do list. If that's a big factor in my coworkers' feeling like they are on a strong team, how could I not prioritize it?

I'm sure there are a million more ways our actions speak louder than words, but these are a few situations I have encountered in my first two weeks! Do you have any tips about what you wish leaders would or wouldn't do? Leave them in the comments!

Adventures Abound: A New Job!

I'm excited that I can officially announce my new position - Interim Director of Fine & Performing Arts for my district! Basically, this means that I am overseeing music, art, & theatre programming for 57 schools. It's a big job, but it's an exciting one as well!

Week #1

In my first week, I have really fluctuated between complete Impostor Syndrome (what am I doing here?!?) and confidence that I can, in fact, get the job done. All part for the course in a transition, I think! I'm still in the time where doing a "simple" task takes 5x as long, because I have to learn how to do it first. Throw in the fact that this position has been vacant since the beginning of the school year (although the previous director has stayed engaged in a few things to tide us over), and there is quite a backlog of work to be done. Slowly but surely, I'm trying to tackle the mountain.

Focus on What's Important

While it's easy to be overwhelmed by the tasks that need to be done, I'm also very cognizant of the fact that there are some "important, non-urgent" things that I need to make time for:

• Proactively communicating with stakeholders
• Going to schools to see what is actually happening
• Advertising & sharing the great things going on in the arts programs
• Connecting with my team in Instructional Services & Equity
• Making sure I refresh and have some semblance of work/life balance
  

Background

As I have started this week, I have been amazed at how different experiences have prepared me well for this job:

• My years as a music teacher taught me what it is like to live day-to-day in the arts world! This gives me a huge amount of empathy for the teachers I am leading.
• My time as a summer school leader, and summer camp director before that prepared me for being the one who leads, makes decisions, & sets the vision for a group of people, as well as dealing with the day-to-day realities of carrying out that vision.
• My time as an ed tech specialist showed me how important it is to work things on a systems level, rather than solving each individual school or classroom on its own. This district perspective is extremely important!

Who knew, when I was doing all of those things, that they would lead me to where I am now?

What's Happening?

One of my first big goals was to send an anonymous survey out to teachers, asking the following questions:

• What, in your opinion, are some of the greatest successes of your program?
• What are some of the greatest challenges you are facing?
• What kind of support do you hope for from the district level?
• Anything else you want me to know?

This will help me determine what I need to focus on from my teachers' point of view. The responses so far have been incredibly helpful!

I also had the chance to get out and visit a few classes last week, which was so refreshing and fun! It helps me feel more connected to what is really happening in the district.

We are CREATORS at Lafayette - drawing & painting sea creatures! Kids explained how, wherever you colored with the crayon, the paint won't stick. #artsed #bvsd pic.twitter.com/zM5YgaPXDj

— Aubrey Yeh (@Ms_A_Yeh) September 27, 2018

Amazing #musiced and #artsed work going on in #bvsd! Celebrating #dotday! We love our Dragons who are on FIRE! pic.twitter.com/OY6H8ffWxo

— Aubrey Yeh (@Ms_A_Yeh) September 27, 2018

Loved seeing the integrated nature of this artwork at Meadowlark today! Thanks for hosting us, @MLPK8Principal ! #bvsd #artsed pic.twitter.com/7mT0wRnaSS

— Aubrey Yeh (@Ms_A_Yeh) September 27, 2018

What's Next?

Thank you to everyone for continuing to follow my journey - it is an adventure, to be sure! I may be in a new role, but my passion and heart for kids & education is still the same, and I look forward to sharing new perspectives!