- 3 Important Points
- 2 Questions
- 1 Last Thought
Point two, I think an essential part of the mentor's job is helping their beginning librarian choose measurable and achievable goals. There is so much in Danielson, and in your first year it is easy to want to set high goals---but especially when you are being evaluated, it is essential that those goals be measurable and achievable.
Finally, there's a lot I am learning as a parent that is echoed in the Lipton text. I won't detail all the parallels I observed, but here is one. I have two children, a three year old and a one year old. I've recently noticed how deeply their behaviors, especially for my older child, are tied to my own emotional state. When I feel stressed, frustrated, lonely, stir-crazy, or overwhelmed, their behaviors escalate, but when I am calm and in the moment, they are too. Lipton and Wellman encourage pausing and changing the pace to allow for deep thinking, and I need to do the same for my children---provide a calm and safe space for them to learn and grow.
My first question is, I wonder how many librarians are evaluated using the teacher color card for Danielson? I've never really even looked at it before this week, as I personally have always been given the one created specifically for librarians by my administrator.
Second question, how are we supposed to keep all these strategies present in mind when engaging in mentoring conversations? I'm feeling overwhelmed by the quantity of advice in Mentoring Matters.
My last thought is that I missed having some sort of in person interaction this week, and really wouldn't mind if there was some more Zoom time included in this course.
Hey Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI loved your 321 Danielson reflection. I think your connection to parenting is evocative and will help me to think about my interactions in a new way. Your point about planning is a good one; I have always been a fan of Responsive Classroom, and I think one of least noticed thing about the approach is all the planning for success -- planning the space, planning choice in activities, planning for students who fall outside of the common response to situations -- good planning is invisible but can make all the difference in the world.
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteYour comments about your children and your emotional state echo a phrase I heard constantly in a a recent trauma class:stress in contagious and so is calm. However, as you pointed out, calm isn't always so easy. I like your idea of using pausing and changing the pace of conversations as ways to encourage that state. I'm going to steal those ideas and try to put them into practice myself.
Hannah,
ReplyDeleteBeing a parent is a humbling experience. Even though my children are grown and parents themselves, you never lose the need to scale down your responses with pauses, and paraphrases with them as adults, and also with the grandkids. Works across most social and educational situations, too. Chalk it up to life lessons learned and reiterated in MM. I also wondered whether we should schedule more Zoom time for this course. Nancy and I have tried to respect the need for personal time during the summer, balanced with professional time. We should talk more about what we might need to change in the next cohort. Thanks for sharing.