Wayfinding

After 15 years of being a classroom teacher, this is the first year that I do not have my own classroom. My teaching is focused on professional development endeavors.  And, as meaningful as my work is-nothing compares to having a class full of kids to work with every day.

Luckily, I frequently get to go to other teachers' classes and work with the kids in different ways.  Recently, an ELL science teacher invited me to go on a field trip with his class to the Bishop Museum Planetarium to view a presentation on Hawaiian wayfinders, who learned to read the wind and the stars to navigate throughout the Pacific.  I learned that the term wayfinding is different from navigating because when you wayfind, you adapt and read your surroundings, you find your way as you go and you trust both your intuition and your knowledge.  

This idea of wayfinding really resonated with me and made me think about what we are doing with the Teacher Leadership Cadre-we are finding our way.  By we, I don't only mean the designated teacher leaders, but I mean all teachers.  We have to research and learn as much as we can, but we also need to adapt as we go and read our audience, whether it be students or teachers, as the Hawaiians read the wind and stars.  We need to see where they are in relation to where we are trying to go and meet them there in order to push forward on our journey. 

This week a story was shared by a veteran teacher about how our short time working on differentiation impacted her.  She was inspired by a vignette we discussed during a TLC session and decided to divide her math class into two groups-those who fully understood the concept and were ready to move on and those who did not.  She sat with the group that was confused and told them to ask her anything, any question they wanted.  She was amazed that they actually asked good questions and proud of her ability to help them understand by answering these questions.  She shared that she did not know she could separate kids like this within the class, for fear of appearing to 'track' them, but her work with the TLC inspired her to try.  She was able to meet her students where they were and allowed them to guide her, and as a team, they found their way.  

The TLC is also finding the way with the teachers we learn with, we are responding to teachers' comfort levels towards trying new strategies and we are meeting them where they are in their understanding of differentiation.  We are letting our colleagues' needs guide our work, celebrating successes along the journey and truly finding the way.