Anyone with a child (let alone more than one) understands that you have to be ready at any moment to pivot- from conversation to conversation, from activity to activity, and sometimes to catch a dropping vase. There are not too many moments for pause and reflection. This tracks in a school environment as well.
Teachers are always in the moment and never really know what to expect, whether it is a welcome or unwelcome surprise. Sometimes, you have planned a very thoughtful lesson that needs to be put aside to either address an issue (like when you realize that the students do not have sufficient background knowledge) or to maximize an opportunity (like when a student asks a more critical question than you anticipated).
On the one hand, we often have to do what needs to be done immediately in unexpected circumstances (by often, I mean about 50 times a day in a fourth-grade classroom and about a thousand times a day in a preschool classroom). On the other hand, these pivots are only successful if the educator has a robust toolbox of strategies developed through significant learning and reflection. The Paradox: Act in the moment, BUT make sure your actions are thoughtful. This is true in much of life, and many fields of work, but my experience is that it is very present in a school environment. On a basic level, it's not easy to talk through an idea with colleagues when everyone is in their classes all day.
When we have time to reflect as educators, we love it and celebrate it. This is why, for example, we are so grateful to our parent body for supporting our ability to schedule a few professional development days a year. This is why I love meeting with colleagues (unlike in my previous jobs), writing these weekly emails, and scheduling non-classroom opportunities to connect with students, like lunch and learns. These are moments of pause and reflection, times when we can stop doing in order to think about what we are doing.
I am particularly impressed by how much my colleagues invest in finding these times of reflection. Just this week, I heard from a few different colleagues about these sorts of efforts: a colleague observing classes while on parental leave as a part of a fellowship program, a colleague applying to participate in an educators cohort over the summer, a colleague citing a book that they are reading with their professional coach, etc.Â
Along the same lines, I was so excited to listen to a podcast that Lisa Exler, our Director of Judaic Studies and Ivrit, recorded (on a Friday afternoon between the end of the school day and the start of Shabbat) with a group of Jewish educators working on Israel education. Indeed, Jewish educators have had to make significant pivots over the past year of war. I hope you enjoy listening to how Lisa and others think about these decisions. It provides a window into how much educators invest in critical learning and reflection, something that tends to be invisible.
Enjoy the podcast here.
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