Rolling with the punches

I dreamed a couple nights ago about RTR. We were all waiting on the tarmac to get on a plane going from England to mainland Europe. Suddenly, the baggage handlers called over their shoulders, "Change of plans: this plane is going first to Mexico, then back to England, THEN to mainland Europe." A couple of us were fine with it; they loved Mexico. A couple of us started advocating, saying that they didn't want to go to Mexico, that we needed to get to Europe and that it didn't make sense to go to Europe by way of Mexico.

This dream made me reflect on my experiences so far as a Richmond teacher resident. Dr. Dozier said in Education Week, "this is the hardest thing" she's ever done. And she was the Senior Advisor on Teaching to the Secretary of Education under Clinton. I too have been frustrated by the kinks; our delayed stipend, attempting to get a Teach Grant or student loans and facing bureaucratic hurdles every step of the way, attempting to get one of the lower cost apartments at Atrium and working with my husband to downgrade all of our stuff to fit into a tiny studio.

Through it all, I've been trying to remind myself of the overall goals of this program. This kind of teacher preparation program is designed to reduce teacher turnover in the highest need schools in our country. It is designed to train teacher leaders (our clinical resident coaches) and attract high need content teachers such as math and science, to high need schools. The goals of the program far outweigh the inconveniences and stresses I've faced as a member of the first cohort.

I also know that behind the administrative kinks is a team of highly dedicated people, committed to seeing this program work. They are working on our behalf, and excited about the possibilities of this program. And they believe in us; they believe that with hands on training, we can become highly effective teachers and make a difference in Richmond Public Schools over the course of our careers.

I've also been thinking about how teachers need to learn the skills of "rolling with the punches." We may not always have the supplies we need--we may need to improvise sometimes. Our lesson plans won't always go the way we planned--we'll need to adapt. Our students will surprise us sometimes with what they know, or don't know, and we'll need to be responsive, flexible and adaptive teachers. One of the philosophies of the residency model is hands-on experiential learning. Perhaps the flexibility and stress management skills we all had to develop this summer were the first of many lessons the residency will teach us.

A note on this blog: I’m imagining this blog as a place for us to share resources, ideas, feelings, and also to reflect on our experiences for the benefit of the next cohort. I’d love for us to all contribute at some point, and have a few people who commit to posting once every couple weeks. I’ll make us all contributors, so please feel free to post whenever you want.