It has taken me two months to truly adjust to becoming a coach and now I think I am able to state what I do without dryly repeating the responsibilities listed on my job description. It is a familiar and comforting purpose - to serve students in need.
I was tasked with so many different projects and responsibilities that in that busy swirl of activity, I began questioning my significance. For thirteen years of my life, the majority of my time was spent on my feet, walking in circles around desks, answering questions, asking questions, actively teaching and actively engaged with hundreds of students.
So spending even an hour of my day seated at a desk was a shock to my entire being. Every member of the school community does amazing work, but I will always believe that the teacher is our most important resource. Teachers are unicorns. And the classroom is a rainbow filled sky dotted with defiant middle school children, bravely figuring out who they are. Without them, I felt untethered and unsure of who I was and what I was doing.
To grapple with this feeling I reviewed everything I am required to do as a middle school college and career coach and simply made sure that everything ties back to the students. That organizing school wide events, serves them. That facilitating conversations about instruction, serves them. That analyzing sets of data will ultimately serve them.
Being sure that my work is grounded in the right place is now, more than ever, essential. And essentially, it is and must be, for them.
I was tasked with so many different projects and responsibilities that in that busy swirl of activity, I began questioning my significance. For thirteen years of my life, the majority of my time was spent on my feet, walking in circles around desks, answering questions, asking questions, actively teaching and actively engaged with hundreds of students.
So spending even an hour of my day seated at a desk was a shock to my entire being. Every member of the school community does amazing work, but I will always believe that the teacher is our most important resource. Teachers are unicorns. And the classroom is a rainbow filled sky dotted with defiant middle school children, bravely figuring out who they are. Without them, I felt untethered and unsure of who I was and what I was doing.
To grapple with this feeling I reviewed everything I am required to do as a middle school college and career coach and simply made sure that everything ties back to the students. That organizing school wide events, serves them. That facilitating conversations about instruction, serves them. That analyzing sets of data will ultimately serve them.
Being sure that my work is grounded in the right place is now, more than ever, essential. And essentially, it is and must be, for them.
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