DOING TOO MUCH IS NOT ENOUGH
Last week, I had the privilege of doing a mini-residency as part of the Las Vegas Public Education Foundation Teacher Leadership Academy. It’s a solid chunk of time where I get to flex my pedagogical skills while building community with educators who I might not otherwise have a chance to work with. It’s weirder when I’m usually the only “current classroom teacher” facilitating sessions like this because these workshops tend to be led by folks who’ve already left the classroom.
In these sessions, I leave lots of open space in my “plan” to allow for teachable moments among adults. I flourish in those uncertain spaces where I know where we need to get to, but no one has any idea how we’ll get there. In one of those moments, we were discussing the obstacles of teacher leadership. Most of the attendees shared how their roles differed based on who you asked: students, peers, or administrators.
Ursela Gavin, National Board Certified Black educator, revealed how she had often been told she was doing too much. By my count, she facilitates about seven clubs with a full teaching program. In the back of my mind, the easy – and hypocritical – thing to have done is tell her that her colleagues were right. She was doing too much and I rather she not burn herself out too quickly because she needs to stay around for the long haul.
Hypocritical because I flew across the country during one of my vacation breaks to spend a full two CONTINUE READING: Doing Too Much Is Not Enough | The Jose Vilson