Tadaaaaaa!
The 2023-2024 school year is over so that must mean we most certainly successfully conquered and now fully have unlocked the mysteries contained in the PD theme of the year: “Teaching These Days.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
(We barely scratched the surface.)
Still, I am grateful for all of the questions we have unearthed together, and the sometimes answers and solutions we have scratched up as well.
I recently listened to this TED Radio Hour podcast about memory and the brain and it reminded me of some things I’ve heard before about the vital importance of recounting and rehashing memories to solidify them in our brains. Indeed, most of my memories from the kid’s early years reside in facebook memories when I used to document the cute things they said/did. Without the yearly reminders, they would have slipped away. After our Rust family epic trip to New York City last Spring Break, I took the advice to heart, and we had a family “share photos from your devices and recount best moments from the trip” the weekend after the trip. It was a way to make those dollars we spent really count. “Remember this, brain?! This was fun and good and we learned things and spent time together!”
Well in the spirit of the recap, here are some of my personal highlights from “Teaching These Days” this year.
- August Workshop Week: “Teaching These Days” Overview
Remember that start of the 2023-2024 school year when TEAM folks stood up and quoted all of these quotes complicating the notion of “kids these days?”
We began the year talking about generational differences and norms, and then Hollie, Matt, and Blake took the stage to talk through three big impacts on “teaching these days”:
- Technology
- Economic Forces
- Political Polarization
Annie Elliott shared some on-the-ground observations from how campers and counselors have changed from 2002-2023:
We had a panel discussion with faculty across divisions and ended with some talk about the impact of Generative AI led by Linda Rodriguez.
Fun fact: We were supposed to have had a panel of outside speakers for this opening session and it all kind of fell through at the last moment. I’m kind of glad it did. To have so many different faculty and admin step up and share their thinking was a gift.
- Our October PD Day was all about human growth and development. I was so grateful to have Jessica Goldsbury step up and share her work on this front at SA. The session with Dr. Scott Rodgers and others provoked a lot of community conversations and feedback, and I have been grateful to have these important/honest dialogues about hwo to best serve all of our youth and respect the dignity of every human being rise to the surface.
- Our February PD Day centered back in with localized concerns and noticings about teaching these days at SA. TEAM members created a series of short skits to launch into faculty-led conversation groups about questions that folks had noticed when teaching in their particular context. (Here are notes from those meetings!) Early Childhood Center faculty opted to share out their best practices grade level by grade level by “going on a field trip” to each other’s rooms.
The afternoon brought Marc Watkins to share about “Teaching in the Age of Generative AI” His talk, much like our October conversations, provoked several follow-up discussions about our institutional stance with these technologies and how we can best equip faculty/students with our mission at the center.
It is clear that this was not all smooth sailing. This people-pleasing self of mine has slowly recognized that, in this job, there is no pleasing everyone . . . especially when whole-school PD initiatives are concerned. In fact, I have begun to suspect that if a speaker or activity or set of themes doesn’t provoke any disagreement, dialogue, or follow-up, it may have not been worth the time and effort at all. The trick is how to listen well and deeply to the smart people in our community without getting stuck in a state of paralysis. The trick is to decipher/separate what we need to reach a stance or consensus on and what we need to live in ambiguity on and who needs to be involved at every step of the way.
None of this year’s exploration would have been possible without the incredibly supportive team of folks we have at the school. Thanks to Kevin, Shea, Buck, and Blake for supporting this work and providing a whole-school divisional lens when needed. Thanks to Taylor Davis, Jessica Parker-Farris, Rachel Scott, Hannah Williams-Inman, and Matt Luter for providing crucial teacher perspectives, feedback, and ideas throughout the journey. Thanks to say many others who stepped up when I said “HELP will you submit a question?!” or “HELP- will you jump in and be in a skit in the last minute?!” or “HELP will you lead a conversation on ______.” The only way to do this work well is for all of us to have a hand or pinky toe in it. I believe this.
The theme may be over, but I’m pretty sure “teaching these days” will persist as the most relevant preoccupation of many of us that work with youth in classrooms each day. Let’s keep talking. Let’s keep asking hard questions. Let’s keep listening. I am grateful for all of it.