How+Community+Affects+New+Teachers

__The Grayest Clouds Cast the Darkest Shadows__

//Imagine that it is you are a first year teacher, and it is your first day of school.//

You walk into the teacher’s lounge, hoping to see a friendly face. It’s the first day of school, of your first year as a teacher. Three classes down, three to go, and you’re feeling pretty good about the way that the day is going. The kids have been a little rambunctious, and going over the syllabus can be kind of a drag, but you are excited about starting a new year.

You turn the corner and notice a piece of paper on the ground, so you pick it up, walk over to the trash can and throw it away. Behind you, someone coughs assertively.

You cringe.

Your eye twitches involuntarily.

You didn’t even see him sitting there, and you would hurriedly exit the room but now it’s too late. You can feel the gravity of his negativity pulsing from the seemingly darkened corner of the break room that he occupies. It is, at least for the moment, inescapable. Taking a deep breath, you turn around, exhale, and smile.

He neither offers a greeting nor returns your smile. Instead, he begins regurgitating the mental diatribe that was he was silently chewing on in his mind:

//The phones! The phones’ll be the downfall of this country. Kids aren’t like they were when we were young. Always staring at those things, living in their own little bubble.//

//But what do you do?//

//The parents don’t care. They let the kids do whatever they want. You can see it in the way that they dress, in how disrespectful they are. I already sent three to the office just this morning.//

//And the administration, they won’t do anything about it. The kids just come back, smiling at the thought of getting to stay home for a couple of days rather than be at school. Then I’ll have to give them make-up work. Not to mention all of this new curriculum they’re rolling out just to make our lives miserable.// //I can already tell; this year is going to be the worst one yet. At least I get to retire at the end of it.//

He pauses, so you turn and walk towards the door, attempting to escape the pull of his negativity, You think he might be finished, but he’s simply inhaling before he executes his coup de grâce. He levels his weary, unhappy eyes at you and grumbles:

// I don’t know why anyone would get into this profession… //

__New Teachers in Trouble__ As a new teacher, it is an unsettling time to be joining the educational community. Dropout rates for new educators in Georgia are high, 47% according to a survey conducted by the Georgia Department of Education (Owens, 2015, pg. 1). Owens (2015) goes on to write that “two-thirds of teachers surveyed would not recommend teaching as a profession” (pg. 7). This suggests that not only is the educational community struggling to retain its new teachers, but it is also struggling to build a climate of satisfaction amongst those already within it. One teacher puts it this way: “The profession has become less and less encouraging, it expects A LOT in return and maintains a punitive culture that essentially strikes fear, anxiety and burn out” (Owens, 2015, pg. 6). The teacher cited explains that encouragement is lacking amid a culture that uses “fear” and “anxiety” in order to produce results. According to the survey results, the individuals involved directly in teaching the students consistently feel and express an overwhelming sense of negativity about the current state of education and the future of education in the state of Georgia. Given the well-established climate of negativity within the profession, new educators would do well to ask themselves two questions. First, as a new member of the educational community, how can I become acclimated to the field without being infected by the “disillusionment and powerlessness” (Owens, 2015, pg. 6) that has become the norm for many educators, and second, can new educators do anything to address this issue amongst their newly acquired peers?

__Finding Community__

When new teachers are hired, they are entering into a variety of pre-existing communities. Loosely defined, community is simply a group of people who work or live in the same place, or that share some similar characteristics (Merriam webster, 2016). When considering educators in light of this broad definition, it becomes apparent that educators are engaged in such a wide range of communities that simply listing them can be overwhelming. In the broadest sense, educators participate in professional, social, physical, and intellectual communities. Each of these can be broken down into subsets. For example, the educator’s professional community might include the department, the instructors in the physical hall or building that the educator occupies, committees that the educator participates in, the entire school (faculty, students, administrators, support staff, etc.), and a state or national association of educators that the educator contributes.

Based on the variety and number of communities that the educator engages in, it is reasonable to draw a connection between the positive and negative effects that those communities have on educators. There are those that argue that the importance of a positive/supportive workplace community cannot be overstated, particularly in education. In terms of communities, this means fostering a work environment that values educators as individuals. Vicki Zackrzewski (2012) puts it this way: “… a caring school community is not just teachers caring for students. Instead, it’s a place where every member—from students to teachers to administrative staff to principals—feels valued as a whole human being, not just for his or her productivity.” Of course, educators have the responsibility (and privilege) to show their students that they are valuable, but the school community should also emphasize that every person that is a part of the school environment has that same value. Zackrzewski (2012) goes on to say, “Research on care in organizations shows that employees who experience a caring workplace are more engaged in their work and have better relationships with their colleagues. They also have higher job satisfaction and are more likely to stay at their job. Most importantly, employees who feel cared for have a greater willingness and ability to care for their clients.” If we extrapolate Zackrzewski’s claim to the educational environment, we can see that there is a significant argument to be made for the idea that a caring workplace improves the happiness and therefore the retention rates of employees, who are in turn more inclined to care for the people that they serve. In this case, educators who feel more cared for are more capable of caring for their students if they exist in a caring work place environment.

Interestingly, DuFour (2004) tells us that, “Despite compelling evidence indicating that working collaboratively represents best practice; teachers in many schools continue to work in isolation” (pg. 3). Although there may be several reasons for this, it seems that at least one major reason is that there is a significant difference between interacting with other educators and collaborating with other educators. For example, “some school staffs equate ‘collaboration’ with congeniality and focus on building group camaraderie” (DuFour, 2004, pg. 3). In such schools, staffs believe that positive interactions between staff members with automatically translate into improved learning outcomes. Camaraderie is an important component of a positive school environment (National school climate standards, 2007, pg. 4); however, it should not be the end goal. Another way that school staffs falsely pursue collaboration is that they focus on joining “forces to develop consensus on operation procedures, such as how they will respond to tardiness or supervise recess” (DuFour, 2004, pg. 3). In this example, school staffs become focused solely on the procedural aspects of running a school. They lose sight of caring for each other and for the students, which is an essential aspect of building a positive school environment (National school climate standards, 2007, pg. 5). Other school staffs, “organize themselves into committees to oversee different facets of the school’s operation, such as discipline, technology, and social climate.

In each of the cases referenced by DuFour, major difference between simply working with educators and true collaboration is purposeful engagement with community. True collaboration is positive community with purpose, and the importance of the positive aspect of healthy community for new educators is crucial: “Empirical research has… shown that when school members feel safe, valued, cared for, engaged and respected, learning measurably increases, and staff satisfaction and retention are enhanced” (National School Climate Standards, 2007, pg. 2). In other words, when a positive school community is created, learning increases, and educators are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. In other words, new educators are more likely to stay, are more likely to become veteran educators, and therefore, are more likely to make a long-term impact.

__Community, A Part of the Solution__ =Teaching is a lonely job and no one knows what we go through more than other teachers who have been there.= =A team of teachers who help other teachers is priceless. – Alice Trosclair= In his analysis of the GaDOE survey that was published in December of 2015, Stephen Owens wrote, “The last question gave teachers the chance to provide reasons for the attrition rate outside of the ones given in the survey. Again, teachers showed a desire to have their collective voices heard as well over 95% of responses included an answer to this optional question.” (Owens, 2015, pg. 6). The optional question was this: “Please list any additional reasons why you believe 47% of the teachers in Georgia leave the profession within five years” (pg. 6). As evidenced by the number of teachers who chose to respond to the optional final question, there are likely many reasons for the high attrition rate for new teachers, and the majority of educators have strong opinions about what those issues are and how to address them. The research suggests that one of the major issues that can be addressed within schools that is not currently being addressed is the importance of a strong community within schools. While many educators and schools pay lip-service to the idea, there is much work to be done in order to create the type of community that can help sustain educators in the face of the large number of issues that they currently face, but doing this work can help alleviate many of those issues.

__Annotated Bibliography__