Opening Up Our Classroom Doors….to Better Teaching?

“Although it may be unused, the front door continues to appeal to our sense of arrival. Call it the ceremony of coming home.” 

― Akiko Busch, Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live

When I first started teaching twenty years ago, I found myself in a classroom housed in a portable, separated by a big playground, a very long walk to the bathroom in the winter, and a real sense of being removed from colleagues, administrators and most other students.  A week after my arrival in my “dream classroom” (And it really was. I was a teacher. A real teacher with book orders in my mailbox and a class list!!!), I was sent packing. I was labelled “redundant” due to low enrollment at that local school, and shipped to a new school by Monday.

Again, the teachers were busy, the school was full, and I found myself surrounded by very little people and not a lot of guidance or mentoring.  My mother arrived on that evening of my first day, politely asking me if I knew “how to teach kids to read” and when she left, I burst into tears.  I wasn’t sure I knew how to teach reading. Had they taught me that in teacher’s college?  Did I have a lesson plan for that one?   The only real advice I recall receiving was from a veteran teacher who told me “not to worry, kids learn in spite of you.”  And with that sage advice, I began my career.  It felt like teaching was really trial by fire.  (Edit note: I looked up that idiom to ensure I was using it correctly.  Definition: Any ordeal which tests one’s strength, endurance, or resolve.  Yup.  That’s the right one.)  Most teachers taught with their doors closed.  Some literally and some metaphorically. Nevertheless, the doors felt closed.  It never occurred to me that I should ask to come in.  Ask to watch a lesson.  Ask for an opportunity to see another teacher in action.  So, with that early sense of how highly private and personal teaching seemed, I began the job I had wanted since pre-K!  The door remained firmly closed. There may also have been a few prayers, hoping no one found out that I wasn’t sure if about this teaching reading gig.

Why do I share all of this?  Thankfully, everything seemed to have worked out those first few years. I occasionally chat with past students or catch up with them on Facebook.  They seem to be able to read.  I am not sure any of those “grade one superstars” were stunted by that early teaching version of me.  I must have done something right!  But even with those successes, I’m not sure I really opened my doors to other teachers.  I worried I would be judged.  I worried I wouldn’t measure up.  I worried.  I worried some more.  And so I kept the door shut real tight on my teaching.  My successes.  My failures.  All tucked away nicely in room 114.   I wasn’t opening my door.  I wasn’t sharing.  I wasn’t talking about anything. Those difficult conversations about our craft?  Wasn’t sure I wanted to have them.

In the past year, a few opportunities have presented themselves to me at HTS and I think they have really begun to make me consider this closed door policy with a more critical lense.  The first moment came with the arrival of Dr. Robert Evans.  He presented a talk on collegiality and how this was very different than congeniality.  Congeniality was about baking muffins for a colleague that you also call a friend.  Congeniality was photocopying lesson plans for a sick partner.  Collegiality was very different. It was about tough conversations.  It was about saying no.  It was about being open to feedback. Even the hard to swallow, hard to believe feedback.  It was about opening the doors to your classroom. Literally and figuratively. It profoundly affected me and I had a number of occasions where his words were put into action with teaching partners, and I began to hear tough things with the spirit of collaboration and collegiality.  The second moment that really changed me again was an opportunity to be selected to take an instructional coaching training session through National School Reform Faculty. I spent a week exploring protocols around classroom observation, giving and receiving feedback and offering support to your fellow teachers.  This opportunity also made me consider how much I need to get out from behind my desk, my walls and my door.

With this begin shared, I have begun to consider my 2015/2016 action research plan.  I am going on a trip.  I’m pretty sure I won’t need to pack much at all. I think I can probably manage carry-on with this one.  I’m going to explore how my teaching can be transformed by the journey.  I’m going to try and visit a different classroom every month. If I can visit two in a month, added bonus! I’m going to explore art.  I’ll stop by kindergarten.  Grade 12 math (Gulp.)?  On the itinerary.  I’m going to explore as many different places as I can.  I’m also going to offer a ticket to my room.  Door will be open.  Come on in.  It may be loud.  We may be off topic slightly but there will be laughter, learning and another teacher sharing in all of that.

I’m beginning my trip in grade six on Tuesday.  I am heading down the halls of HTS to a teacher who has oodles of ideas, a beautiful classroom, anchor charts everywhere and lucky for me-an open door.  Thanks, Kristy! I’m on my way.

Stay tuned for my adventures.  And if you find yourself walking near room 114 in the senior school, please drop in.    I bet we will both learn something new.

Yours in adventure and growth,

Danielle

PS. If you have never had the opportunity to see Dr. Evans, here is a talk he gave.  Worth the 45 minutes.

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/92518871[/vimeo]