It has always amazed me that, as teachers, we are told how powerful positive reinforcement is to the self-confidence of our students and how it builds self-efficacy, yet teachers walk through most of their career with very little of that positive lift coming their way. As an administrator, I vowed to make it my goal to find something positive and praiseworthy to say to my staff members every day. Good grief was that hard! I failed miserably. We all get caught up in our day-to-day existence and forget how wonderful it is to work with other people all trying to enlighten and develop the young people in our community. So what can we do? One thing that I have is a quotation from Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return To Love (1992) hanging on the wall by my desk. The passage is frequently misquoted as being part of Nelson Mandela’s inaugural address. I have used it many times over the years to try and motivate my students and colleagues to see their intrinsic value and to not hide it away. This is what I believe to be the gist of what Sivers is saying. In order to really share, we need to see the unique value in what we have accomplished and created.
In this article by Jeff Austin, he points to leadership as the key to a collaborative mindset with teachers. Leadership requires the ability to take risks and not fear failure. It is interesting to note that he makes it very clear what we mostly all take for granted – we serve students. That in itself is a way of sharing. Intellect and creativity are wonderful, but sharing our time is priceless. Similarly, Bob Lenz, in an article in Edutopia, discusses how teachers that are able to collaborate with the support of on-going and focused professional development to build professional learning communities that encourage sharing ideas. My experience with PLC’s in schools has shown that they are only successful if the school administration or school district provides the essential time for collaboration.
So where does this leave us? We can certainly think of many reasons to put off sharing, how we would be happy to share if only we felt better supported, no time to make it worth while, too busy, and, of course, we don’t have anything to share. These are just excuses. I am sure you will remember the poem by Robert Fulgam, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. Here is a nice little video by Cynthia Mendoza that illustrates the poem. Check out the very first thing learned in Kindergarten. If Kindergarten kids can do it, surely we can too., after all, they learn it from teachers.