Planning Week: Co-Constructed.

This year, our NOLA Nature School planning week has looked different than any of the professional development or planning weeks I have previously been part of. As with any school, there are the big updates—what to know about the latest COVID guidelines, information about new, existing, and departed families, etc. There was also, as is typical, a little bit of the catching-up and reacquainting that occurs after the summer vacation.

However, most meaningful this week have been the discussions we have had as a collective of educators dedicated to work with and care for children within the same physical and philosophical space. Rather than assigning us professional development topics that may or may not be of interest to/relevant for us, Clare invited each of us to either share or open a dialogue about a topic that mattered to us. For some of us, it involved sharing about our practices last year—for instance, I shared about the emergent curriculum of our previous year using our floorbook and the children’s artifacts. Other discussions had their origins in questions: for instance, one of our teachers asked about what to do when children were being exclusionary, opening up an arena for us all to share about our practices for supporting children as they strive to create classroom cultures that emphasize kindness, connectedness, and promote a sense of collective responsibility and belonging among the children.

Throughout each and all of our broader discussions and sharing, teachers chimed in with questions, comments, and received both ideas and clarification. This not only opened the floor for more dialogue among our community, but also meant that teachers were able to ask questions and gain insight into matters that were closely related to their current pedagogical concerns. Theoretically, this model has the potential to be even more impactful even after a meeting than one where ideas are presented to teachers as if they were an audience.

Another benefit of a professional development centered around conversation is that it introduces teachers to the stores of knowledge present within their community of colleagues. Even if only briefly, we begin to notice the ways that our colleagues conceptualize children, childhood, and their roles as educators in relationship to each. This, I believe at least, contributes to an environment of mutual respect. For example, a discussion about gun play, brought up a great deal of strong opinions. Despite at least half an hour of sharing and negotiating, we left that discussion without consensus but with no less respect for the validity of ideas, perspectives, and processes of our educator peers.

I am impressed and proud of my peers, and to consider myself part of their team.

You know, a while back Josh said something to me that still resonates with me to this day:

“No one I know thinks as much about the work they do as you do.”

It seems, however, that I’ve found my people. And together we are going to do such wonderful work.

Here’s to an amazing year!

Ron