“We believe that teachers develop professionally through meaningful inquiry and collaborative opportunities with colleagues, characterized by sharing observations of students, exploring instructional possibilities, and reflecting on their growth as learning teachers and teacher-leaders.”  from The Teacher You Want to Be

For almost all of my life, my passion for education has been undying. I loved what I did with great purpose and a determination that I can only describe as innate. I always believed I was born to teach. It was just that simple.  I was forever thankful for such a powerful force in my life, especially as I watched others struggle to find their place in the work world. I felt lucky to know what it was I was here for and for all of the meandering paths to take me there.    I would kill for this work, but  now I fear the work may be killing me.

You see, ever since my very first teaching gig, I have  had a community of forward thinkers around me. It started when I was an intern and worked at a cluster school where there were several of us lowly interns, working for free, taking graduate classes and trying to make ends meet financially. We bonded often at the local watering hole in the  afternoons for Happy Hour because there were free hors devours (dinner to us!) and one-dollar beers. We would spend hours debriefing our weeks and mulling over our common and uncommon experiences. The laughter, the camaraderie and the connections were invaluable.

Photo Credit:  Designsolutions

My first job landed me in the middle of nowhere New Hampshire in the midst of the most welcoming and fabulous team of teachers where working together was just the way it was.   I needed to learn to teach and they were there to help me grow and learn.  We grew up as Mother’s together.   Our strength in our numbers was undeniable. Just the opening of the door meant I could go to the bathroom any time of the day! They are still some of my nearest and dearest friends to this day.

My next position was in Plaistow where I instantly felt alone and missing my community, so I listened intently at staff meetings and in the teachers room and then there was an opportunity to take a graduate course called Learning Through Teaching.  It was held at the  Pollard School and it is there that I really started to get to know people. I loved the meetings after school where we wrote, shared our writing and our thinking.  I found my peeps and then I went after them, moving rooms and finding ways where we could work together. We too bonded in and out of school and there I found some of the funniest people I have ever met who I don’t see often enough!

Photo Credit: peeps

My last 15 years at UNH, that community of support ebbed and flowed in terms of numbers, but was unwavering in it’s consistency. One Friday a month we would all gather at someone’s house to talk things through over coffee, tea and some kind of breaking of bread. We read, we wrote, we listened, we responded. Participants would come and go, but the core was steadfast and true and at that core was  Louise and Newkirk, and now they have both retired. (Well, Louise will officially this month anyway! Congrats to you my friend!)

As I move forward in this work I realize that I need to make, create and establish this kind of consistent community with new people. I am not as good on my own as I am with others who talk the talk, ask the questions and keep us all current in our work. I NEED this as I need air to breathe and without this air, I am not in good enough shape to keep on going it alone….and that is what I mean by killing me.

Learning Through Teaching was born on the foundation of teachers gathering and having professional conversations. It was Jean Robbins (see blog on Jean) who approached Tom Newkirk (see blog on Newkirk) and thus Learning Through Teaching was founded.

Louise and Tom

Enter Louise to run it and grow it for 20 years with me by her side for 15 of those years and it has been an amazing run, but it is not over.  If connectedness is this important to me then the work we do is even more important than I even knew. In LTT, we do just this. We help teachers grow professionally in a safe environment where we read; we write and have those conversations regularly within the walls of their schools while earning graduate credits.  I still believe it is the most powerful and individualized form of Professional Development.

DMS LTT Group, Photo Credit:  Mark Holt- Shannon

So what is next?  It is time for the next generation of forward thinkers to gather and keep on keeping on.   We need ways to extend ourselves beyond the brick and mortar that has so many feeling constrained and at the same time to stay there and support teachers as they move and change in their thinking and practices. It is time to breathe life into and grow again;  to create a new garden of support, to blossom, to bloom, to create more beauty together.

If you have ever been a part of Learning Through Teaching I would love for you to share your experiences here (in the comments section or e-mail me directly at tomasen@comcast.com) , to tell your story of what it was like for you to be a part of a learning community and how it helped you in your teaching. As we look forward, it is important to look back, to think about what works well and what might need to be changed and to do that we need all of you and your ideas, your questions, your thoughts.

My hope is to continue interviewing, thinking and writing about Learning Through Teaching to uncover the truths about what has kept it going for so long and to keep it in schools far into the future.

For more information on Learning Through Teaching, see here: UNH Learning Through Teaching Professional Development.

Photo Credit:  HGTV

I woke up this morning with my blog on my mind and I said Write Girl Write! It has been so long since I have been moved to write.  That was until this past week where I took on a new challenge in my life, something to practice a daily meditation EVERY day for 40 days.

Quotesaboutlifeandwriting.com

So where am I in this challenge? I am on day 4, I think! And while it may sound pretty easy, it has been my experience that easy is as easy does. The hardest part is getting myself down and on that damned mat! Once I am there I find myself seeking out more yoga, breath work and meditations to practice. The effort comes not from the actual act of the meditation; the effort comes in getting my ass onto that mat. And even as I type, there it sits, right in front of me, beckoning me to sit, waiting for me to occupy. (I am coming, just let me get this written!!)

The theory here is that it takes 40 days to make or break a habit and yes, this is a habit that I want in my life. To be fair and kind it is a habit that I have incorporated some days and the truth of the matter is that those are the days where I find myself flowing through the day with less effort. In short it allows me to be who I am, wherever I am, whomever I am with.

If we believe we are human beings then being is really what we are meant to do, right? But even as I sit and begin my practice on the mat my mind is swirling with the list of things I must get done. We are NOT human doings, and yet, so much of our self worth is measured in how much we do! I find it harder and harder to meditate with this spring air, bright sunshine and not to mention a full moon that has kept me up for the past 2 nights! So in essence you could make the leap that I NEED this time to myself in stillness even more. And I do!

I was in a restaurant the other day; the first day of this 40-day challenge and the waitress walked over to our table and asked if she could interrupt. She then went on to say that she wished she had had a camera because in all of her years of waitressing, never had she seen someone who was so completely in the moment. She went on to describe how I was looking and listening to my lunch date with such presence. She then thanked us  and made her way away from the table. I tucked that gem away in my back pocket as a reminder of just how important it is to have that phone away in my purse, to make eye contact and to “really” listen.

She said I was “in the moment”. In the moment is where I strive to be, but with a very busy mind, a phone, ipad and laptop at my fingertips and so much to “do” it is rare to actually be there.

As I walk into one of my schools after the quarter has closed, there  is an enormous banner celebrating all of those in the school who made the honors list. First glance seems benign enough, unless of course you were one point away from making any of those lists or even if you were miles away from making that list, the bottom line is that if you are not there, well you pretty much suck.  You didn’t DO enough to make the list of the elites.

projecthappiness.com

I see so much time spent on busy work when I am in classrooms. The language is all about what is and isn’t done! There is a done work basket, there are finished folders, lists of things to get done in the morning while the teacher meets with other students, but the idea of just being with a book or a piece of writing for an extended period of time doesn’t seem like enough anymore! This worries me, as that sense of getting lost in a book or in one’s own writing or wondering and inquiring in science or social studies is a critical part of becoming real learners.  I cringe when I hear teachers telling kids to put their book away to complete a worksheet on silent e. So they comply, follow directions to get that busy work worksheet done, even though they were living and breathing silent e’s in their own reading. Sometimes I want to yell out, STOP the madness! Just let them BE!!

The rate of yogi’s and yoga studios has increased like wildfire across this nation. Yoga means union and the ultimate purpose of yoga practice is to prepare one to meditate.  Movement before stillness.  Doing to “be”.  In this age of technology that continues to move at warp speed it is easy to get caught in the fast lane, moving forward, forward, forward…but towards what? From pre-school to the best kindergarten, from Elementary school to Middle to High School to get into the very best colleges. The race is on, but you know what? At the end of all of that education you still have people seeking out a way to make meaning of their lives and hopefully a place to work that allows them to live and work with purpose.   If we are always looking ahead at the next step then we are never really here? Are we?  The idea of slowing down, taking the back roads to just wind one’s way through the countryside is where I want to be and I believe it is where many of us want to be, but we can’t because we are so revved up and moving too quickly to even realize there are options.

So today, like the next 36 days, I will get myself to that mat, I will meditate, do some yoga and notice. I will “do” the practice to “be”.  And while I know every day will be far from rosy, at least I will have that time every day to sit in stillness, to remember why I am here and fully embrace the notion of being, for at least 3 minutes each day.  Now onto that mat!