I’ve been retired as an educator for over four years now, but I still keep up with what is happening in schools. While I did not experience leading a school during the pandemic, I empathized with the educators, the students, and the families who were impacted. The pandemic disrupted education and exposed the inequities that exist in our schools. Since returning to in-person learning, how have our classrooms, our schools, our complex areas, and our Department changed to address the concerns that became evident during the pandemic? Has education changed? How?
Recently, I met with a group of innovative teacher leaders who are or have been Hawaii Teacher Fellows. Their passion to change the education narrative is evident, but they are also somewhat impatient and want changes to happen more quickly at their school or in the Department.
When I got home, I reflected on my own experiences. I was lucky. My first fifteen years of teaching were with the Head Start program, working with disadvantaged preschoolers and their families. I was in a center with one other teacher and two educational assistants but we had opportunities to visit other classrooms, and this was a great opportunity for personal and professional growth. We asked questions and took some of the new ideas and modified them for our students. When these teachers came to visit my classroom, I got to respond to their questions as well. In the process I learned and gained confidence as a teacher, trying new ideas, sometimes making mistakes but learning from them. My experiences working with Head Start students and their families provided me with strong core values about early childhood education, hands-on activities and learning through play, working with students from disadvantaged backgrounds, gaining trust with parents as partners in their child’s education, creating hands-on activities to address student needs, focusing on language experiences, using developmental checklists to plan differentiated activities, and working as a team to provide services to students, including those with special needs.
I have no doubt that those fifteen years of experience at Head Start helped me when I finally landed a position in the Hawai`i Department of Education. I was a newbie as an elementary school teacher, but all these years of teaching and learning helped me as I worked with first and second graders. My core values and beliefs didn’t change as I adapted to working with elementary-aged students, and I was able to become a better teacher through this new experience. I learned about grade level expectations and collaborated with our team as well as with teachers from other grade levels to ensure that our students had a well-rounded education. Together, our team agreed that grouping students homogeneously based on their reading level did not work and that all students need to be exposed to a quality curriculum with high expectations. Parent volunteers were essential in our classroom, and I continued to learn from my colleagues as we collaborated on grade level projects to engage our students.
Everything I learned as a teacher was instrumental in how I led our school when I became a principal. I realized the importance of relationships; I was fortunate to have leaders who encouraged me and who gave me many opportunities to become a better teacher. That is the kind of principal I strived to be, one who knows that every teacher is different just like every student in our class is different. My goal was to help each teacher to grow and gain confidence in themselves as educators. I encouraged our teachers to try new ideas, to reflect, to share, and to continuously grow. We chose to make changes from the bottom-up rather than top-down.. A few examples: a general education and special education teacher asked to co-teach and it was so successful for all students in their classroom that we expanded that inclusion model to all grade levels. Project-based learning began with a core of teachers who attended trainings and met together as a professional learning community to support each other. Teachers regularly led our professional development sessions, and sharing with others became routine at our school.
So what bits of wisdom can I share for teachers who ask why change is so slow in our large Department of Education? First, figure out what it is that you want to change and why. Talk with others about your concerns or ideas and see what the reaction is. Find other like-minded individuals at your school or in organizations you belong to and discuss concerns as well as changes you would like to see. Prioritize and have a plan of action before proposing your idea to administration or to the Leadership Team. Be aware that once you put an idea on the table, it is no longer your idea; it then belongs to the whole group, and their input, concerns, and questions can make a good idea even better. Start with small wins; once others see that change is possible, they may be more willing to get involved.
Remember, too, that there might be a good reason why your idea might not be possible to implement at this time. Having a conversation with the principal can provide insight, and if he/she knows that you are concerned, that could open up discussions with others that could lead to positive results. Teacher voice is essential if we are to improve education for our students. As Mother Teresa stated, "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."
*Here are articles that might be useful to read if you would like to propose changes in your school or organization:
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