Back in the Arena
I love this quote from President Roosevelt for so many reasons. But, mostly because it continues to be a guiding frame for me both professionally and personally.
The last few decades in education have been a whirlwind. I typically share this story when speaking with groups, but as I’m headed back into the classroom a bit this fall, I wanted to share it here with all of you as well!
I started off as a Middle School ELA teacher at Wissahickon MS. Teaching 90-minute blocks, working in a team format, and having amazing veteran teachers guiding me was an incredible jump into education. I started coaching MS Boys Lacrosse this year as well, and fell in love with coaching (I’ve been coaching lacrosse every year since, 20 years!). After years of wanting to be in the classroom, I was finally in the arena.
I moved up to the High School to be an English teacher, and I was a floating teacher my first two years moving from classroom to classroom. I honestly think this made me use technology with a purpose much quicker than I would have, because the classroom carts, and my own laptop, served as both an office and a tool that would work in any learning environment. I started coaching football, started FANS Club, helped rewrite our English Curriculum, led PDs, finally got my own classroom, and loved being a teacher. I started a blog writing about education, what was happening in my classroom, and created a network of education writers all blogging and sharing their stories. During this time I also finished my Master’s in Global and International Education at Drexel University. It was one of the first online programs with classmates taking part from around the world. I was learning so much!
We had instructional coaches at our district, and their role of impacting more classrooms and more kids always inspired me. I applied and didn’t get the job one year. The next year, during the start of our 1-to-1 initiative at MS/HS I landed the K-12 Instructional Coach role with a focus on Technology and supporting this big initiative. After years of wanting to work with teachers on a daily basis, I found myself in a different arena.
Teaching teachers is very different than teaching students. Of course, there are similarities but I had a lot to learn! One of my colleagues from the English Department and from Coaching Lacrosse, Anthony Gabriele, helped me a ton in this transition. He also introduced me to the folks at UPenn GSE Penn Literacy Network, and this is when I first started taking instructional coaching seriously as someone who was now in the arena.
My writing online shifted towards a “how to help teachers” approach as much as possible, and at this time I wrote and published my first book with Rutledge, Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom. One big eye opening experience about this time as an instructional coach is how limited of a view on education I had as HS/MS English teacher. What worked in my classroom, and in my department, would often not work at all in other subject areas, and in lower grade levels. I couldn’t be an instructional coach and have success helping teachers unless I was really listening, learning, and understanding different circumstances and best practices across K-12.
The instructional coaching role, also lead me into meetings with many administrators at the school and district level. I was a conduit, helping bridge what was happening in the classroom back to the admin, but I also wanted to have even more of an impact and eventually applied and took my first admin role at Upper Perkiomen School District. I found myself, one more time, in a new arena, with new challenges and so much to learn.
I was also presenting at some local and national conferences when I was an instructional coach, continuing to write on my blog and newsletter, and started a Classroom Questions podcast with my soon-to-be co-author John Spencer. My family was growing, and I developed and wrote a new course for UPenn GSE Penn Literacy Network that I taught to folks from around the Philadelphia area for the first time.
One of the big professional development opportunities I had was traveling the country consulting with ISTE for the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools initiative, and learning so much from folks that were guiding this work, developing the PD, and giving me feedback on my sessions. I met George Couros during this time at an ISTE Leadership event, who has always mentored me since in writing, and leading professional learning.
Being an administrator was completely different than I imagined. For one, there were so many more meetings, stakeholders to consider, and plans to develop than I could have ever imagined as a classroom teacher. We launched a 1-to-1 initiative at Upper Perk, rewrote curriculum across K-12, revamped the Elementary, MS, and HS STEM programs, hosted a TEDx Event led by students, and were invited down to the White House as being one of the first OER districts represented in the country. I had released LAUNCH with John Spencer, spoke at schools and conferences all around the country, taught another course at UPenn PLN, and eventually hosted an in-person symposium tied to Penn Literacy Network with John Spencer that brought folks all around the country to Penn’s campus.
My next role kept me in the same arena, but now as a Director of Learning and Innovation at Centennial School District. Being a Cabinet level leader, in charge of millions of dollars of budget, a huge staff, technology and curriculum could be heavy and overwhelming at times. But working in this arena, is where I really understood the power of people, a team, and distributed leadership.
I’ve written about this and speak about it a ton, but there was a group of teachers I met almost the first day I worked at Centennial. They had already started CentennialX, and were looking for some administrative support. It was an amazing idea, that they were already bringing to life, and I was so happy to help. One of them said, “You have no idea what this type of support from admin means. Especially since you just started.” But, I did know because I had admin throughout my career that supported me, and they were putting in the work to make a huge difference at the school and in kids’ lives.
I had other situations that were completely different. Where I was challenged to stick with principles and beliefs, and challenged when those beliefs were also shown to be wrong or misguided when it came to curriculum, technology, and learning. That’s the role of a leader, and I wanted to help as many leaders as possible in this work, and impact as many teachers as possible.
The last few years I’ve written more books, worked with teachers from all across the US, Canada, and places around the world like Chile, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and more. But, something was missing. I was in a different arena, and sure I was leading professional learning, doing model lessons, helping sub here and there, but missing out on the arena that has changed more than anything. The classroom.
It is different than teaching graduate level courses for PLN. It is different than leading my own cohorts through Maven. And it is different than doing a model class lesson here or there, because it’s the real arena. The place that us in education are trying to help impact as much as possible.
Next year, I’ll be back in that arena, working part-time as a teacher at a local high school. I’ll be sharing my journey along the way as I’ve done for the last twenty years, and hoping to learn something new. This isn’t merely to get a fresh perspective, but to see what the work looks like week in and week out, working with students.
As I continue writing about Learning 3.0, and what the future holds, it is going to be exciting to get an inside look, and be in the arena with all the ups and downs that come with it!
