Cultivating [ teachers ]

Behind every thriving classroom is a teacher who is continually learning, growing, and being encouraged.

In our newest episode of Cultivating Spaces, we discuss teacher mentorship, professional development, and the unique culture that helps LCA educators flourish in their calling. Join us for a conversation about why supporting teachers matters—and how it impacts students every day.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Welcome to Cultivating Spaces, a podcast presented by Lexington Christian Academy in Lexington, Massachusetts. Here is where experts and thought leaders in Christian learning communities discuss what's on their minds and inside their work, where faith and learning intersect, where good ideas grow. I'm Amy Chaney, a principal here at Lexington Christian Academy in Lexington, Massachusetts. Today's episode features a conversation about something that sits at the very heart of who we are as a school: our teachers. At LCA, we believe that great schools are built by great teachers who are continually learning, growing, and supporting one another. What does it look like for teachers to be mentored, encouraged, and challenged in their craft? How does a strong community among educators shape the experience students have in the classroom? And why should prospective teachers and families care about the way teachers are supported? Today we're diving into these questions and more. We'll explore how mentorship at LCA helps new teachers find their footing, how experienced educators continue to grow in their calling, and how a culture of fellowship strengthens both teaching and learning. We'll also consider why investing in teachers ultimately benefits every student and builds confidence for families seeking an excellent, price-centered education. So thank you to our guests for taking the time to record this discussion. And without further ado, here we are, cultivating teachers. Good to see you. Thanks for being here to have a chat about the ways that we support teachers here at LCA. I thought we'd start a little bit with um just go around and introduce. There's four of us in the room here. So share a little bit about who you are, what you do here at LCA, and you know, some little little bits about how you touch the experience of new and emerging teachers at LCA. Becca, you want to go first? Sure.

SPEAKER_06 2:26

My name is Becca Sankey, and I've been here at LCA for four years, and I serve in our administrative team. I'm our director of executive administration and employee engagement.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Mouthful.

SPEAKER_06 2:38

Yeah. Big old title. And I would say actually probably the employee engagement is the space that I most get to interact with our new teachers. Yeah. Um, one of the joys of that work is that anytime someone's interested in joining our team, I get to meet them first.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

You're the first touch. You're the first person they see or the first voice that they hear.

SPEAKER_06 3:00

It's really fun. And I get to share about all of the things that I love about the school and hear actually what's jumped out at them about it. And very often, especially with faculty hires, they do have questions about how we're supporting our teachers. Yeah. What that looks like. Yeah. Um, and so it's great to be able to chat about the pieces of the mentoring program that I know some others in the room will talk about today.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:23

Uh, but I also then get to support the teaching fellowship that we have here. Yeah. The Fellowship for Christian teaching. Yeah. Um and that's really cool because it draws on some of the experiences that I've had as a supervisor in past places and the DNA faculty role that I got to serve in here for uh some time. And so it's yeah, it's neat to still have a touch in the classroom, go back to my teaching days in those spaces, um, but then also be able to do it from an administrative side with a little understanding, having been on both ends of yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Thank you. Thank you. Emma. I am Emma Whitmer. You're a reprisal. You've been on this podcast before. I have too.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

And I teach upper school English. Um, I have taught middle school English and I've taught upper school history, but currently I'm teaching upper school English. So I teach the ninth and the eleventh grade. Um, and I am a classroom teacher. I've been at LCA. This is my fourth year here. Um, and I came from a career in both England and America in both public and charter schools. So and I wind up here. So I'm here. My three kids are also here, changes my dynamic and increases my desire to invest in LCA as a sure institution.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Yeah, definitely. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

And Kristen. I'm Kristen Todd and I'm an LCA alum and I've now been teaching here for the past 13 years. Um, and I'm the sixth grading and homeroom teacher, and I teach middle and high school French.

SPEAKER_02 5:03

You also teach sixth graders how to do school.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

We have a class for sixth graders that's basically how to be a sixth grader.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yeah. Yeah. It's a sixth grader. One of the most important classes we teach, I think. It's delightful. Yeah. And the two of you both are not only like instrumental in the mentorship program, but it this is actually your brainchild. Um, was it a year ago or a little over a year ago? You both walked into my office and said, Amy, we have to do this better. We have ideas, we have energy, and all I needed to do is get out of the way. And it's been delightful to watch how the the way that our new teachers are being mentored has grown with your influence. Um, we'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute, but I want to go back also to you, Becca. Um, you talked about our fellowship for Christian teaching, which sounds great, but what is it? What is a teacher fellowship? How do we develop it? Um, and just share a little bit about what that experience actually is because this is our our first year that we're running.

SPEAKER_06 6:09

I know, Kristen, that you were mentioning that you were an alumni of the school. Our teaching fellow this year is also an alumni of the school. It's been great to pilot that alongside her and um kind of get the feel through that. But uh the the fellowship program um currently is a one-year focus with uh a different uh focus for each month as you move through the program of the year. Um, and it's designed to really support teachers who are coming into the profession, maybe from a different career, which we're seeing more and more in the education field as the industry sort of navigates changes in teacher education programs. Um, and those who uh maybe have not been in a Christian school setting before, because the faith integration piece is such a key in in the LCA way of teaching. Yeah. Um, and we have our our five different focuses, our beams that we go through that you've done such a cool job of developing.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Leader, uh lit leaders, listeners, beams is our like pedagogical philosophy. So these are our kind of core values as it comes to the way we operate in our our classrooms. Um, yeah, and so it connects, doesn't it? It connects like a spiritual integration or a faith integration component with one of the pedagogical values that we have. Um and I don't know about you, but some of my favorite conversations I've had all year has been a roundtable discussion with our fellow that's just like deep in philosophy. It's why we're doing this, it's why it matters that we're doing this with a Christian worldview. And it's also practical. I've rarely experienced conversations that are so like high-level strategic and practical, use it tomorrow at the same time. It's pretty, pretty neat.

SPEAKER_06 8:01

And I think for us having been, I mean, for anyone here in this room, but having been in the classroom as we're developing any of these things, either the fellowship for Christian teaching or the mentorship that you guys were doing this year, there's been such a focus on what how is this going to turn around tomorrow in the class? How is it gonna actually connect with what I'm doing? Because I there's nothing more frustrating than professional development that feels like really wonderful and cool to think about. And then is there's no way to just pull it into what you're doing. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that's been fun about the fellowship this year, especially in the conversations that we've had when we have those moments to sit down and kind of talk with the far our fellow about how it's going and what it's looking like, and then hearing specifically, like, oh, in this unit, this is the assessment that I've been working on, you know, doing backwards design with, or this is the so I think that practical piece is really a hallmark of what we're trying to do in anything professional that we're doing with.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah. And that fellowship, too, just to sort of um tie up some of those practical bits too, is that the teaching fellow teaches a lighter course load in their first year so that they have time to do this fellow work. All of the fellow work is relevant to what they're doing in real time. They're not creating like imaginary lesson plans like they would if they were in a master's program. They're creating lesson plans for the literal classes they got to walk in and teach the next day. And it results in not only a certification in Christian teaching, but also a like full personal philosophy of teaching so that early in the career, these teachers, these fellows can articulate and verbalize how their teaching is Christian and why they do what they do with purpose. And um, that's really neat. That's something that we have done in different ways here at LCA over the years. Were you here for the teaching portfolios, the like Google site teaching portfolios that we did?

SPEAKER_04 10:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Um, there were a lot of pieces to that, but I did always value like having to go back and relook at like my own articulation of what I'm doing is such a great like annual practice. Um let's talk a little bit about mentorship. Uh, we'll kind of go back and forth and talk about this because in theory, nope, not in theory, in literal reality, a teaching fellow in their first year is is supported by Becca and myself as the fellow. And also supported by you, Kristen, and you, Emma, as mentors. Um, and I would love to start with like what is what was the um when you walked into my office and you were like, there's a problem to be solved, and we've got an idea. If you can almost like access that conversation again, what was the problem to be solved and how has mentorship turned into what it is now?

SPEAKER_04 11:01

I think we both felt um last year it helps. So Kristen and I both teach Kristen in middle school, I'm in upper school, um, and alongside a lot of new faculty. So I'm in the English department, um, Kristen's in the modern languages department, French teaches French. So we had a good spread of new teachers, and um I think there are a lot of things when you join a community, either as a new educator or as someone who is just new to LCA, there are a lot of pieces that you're not familiar with. And a lot of those pieces are not immediately apparent. So I think it's easy to forget, it's easy to miss, particularly when you've been part of an institution for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

All the things that are new to other people. Um and I think we both felt pretty strongly that part of being a welcoming community is making sure that our new teachers don't feel all lost. Um and we really wanted to I I think in some ways we see it as like practicing hospitality. Like what does it look like to welcome in new people? And how do we make sure that they don't feel isolated or alone or out of their depths? And I think we both realize that things that are not a big deal and that maybe are not thought of at a kind of a more administrative level actually can be a super big week when you're in the classroom. Yeah. So when you don't know where to laminate something, it's not a person. I would be delighted to show you.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Um laminator is your favorite colleague.

SPEAKER_04 12:49

Um and those are not, those are not things that we can teach ahead of time because that would be drinking from a fire hose. Yeah. And they're not things that maybe you would necessarily think about.

SPEAKER_06 13:00

Yeah, we don't have laminator training as far as something.

SPEAKER_04 13:04

But when you're or you know, the photocopier breaks down and you're not sure who to contact, or you're running a test and you don't have enough copies and you need someone to bring you extra copies, whatever it is. Those are actually the things that I think can make you super stressed. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and because we were kind of on the grind and in some ways troubleshooting those things, just for colleagues when we could, we felt like, okay, this is uh an area that we could potentially step into.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah. And we wanted to rethink orientation too, because there's for everybody orientation week is overwhelming because it's your first week back, your lesson planning, you're getting your classroom ready, right, and doing all the trainings. And for new teachers, there's so much they also have to learn. Yeah. And so our rethinking with that was what do they actually need to know now? Right. What do they not need to know right now? So we can have meetings later and do that when they've got time. Right. Um, can we sit together in a room and set up our online system so that everybody's is done and they have the support? So um thinking through the beginning of the year as well.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

I appreciated the very helpful like resistance or friction you threw into the planning of orientation. And I use that word intentionally because I can get really excited about some stuff that some veteran teachers are excited about, also. And it was so helpful to have teachers passionate about the experience of those who are going to fall asleep with their eyes open because they're just worried about where they're going to make their copies for the first day of class. And that was a great, like that you felt that you could raise that. And um, I appreciate so much that perspective and that you brought that courageously, frankly. Um, Amy, they do not need to hear all the nice big dreams we have. Um, they need to know what they're gonna do tomorrow. And I think that's been their experience this year.

SPEAKER_04 15:07

I think so. I mean, I think our goal with orientation was what do they need to know? What do they need in order to be ready for that first day in the question? Um, so from the practical, do they have enough supplies to the I was gonna mention, like we need simpler. Do they have what they need to the more like can they access the plans that they need? Do they know how to print a class list? Um, and then to the sort of non-uh subject-specific things as well. Like actually, I think in talking to new teachers, we discovered that things like study hall and lunch duty are the biggest sources of stress. Yeah. Or you had an experience starting a new teacher off of the study hall, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yeah, it was an unusual study hall. It was his first study hall that was already large. And then um there was a teacher whose class um needed a place to go, and so they joined in study hall. So there were two different rosters, uh more kids than we were expecting. Um, so it was perfect. So I was there for the first half hour that we took care of the kids who were in class, and he did the ones who were in study and went over expectations so that by the time you you passed by the room like 20 minutes later, it was like it was silent. Yeah. So yeah, and I think that was you just need that support.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Right. And it was just great. I think because we don't have any responsibility for um supervising or evaluating or anything like that, I think it's been really easy for teachers to be like, help, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Yeah, you are the phone a friend. Like you are the phone a friend every time they run into something. Um what have been some of the those like time sensitive? That's a great example, that study hall. Um I've seen some like beautiful slide decks about classroom management strategies. And um, I would love to hear about like what are those practical skills? I imagine if I'm listening and I'm someone who's thinking about becoming a first-year teacher. It's hard to know what you don't know. Do you know what I mean? Um, so what have been some of those phonafren moments or um topics that you've really taken care to create some content for to make sure teachers are equipped?

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Tours of the building is the first tour. So many tours, several tours of the building because you go through the building and then you forget. Um, that's so true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

One tour is not enough. No, it's not. Right. And I think we we really felt like in order, it's much easier to start new teachers off strong than it is to come in when maybe patterns have not been set up at the beginning of the year. It's much harder to correct than it is to start well. So I think it was at the beginning of the year, we really focused on classroom management strategies, setting up your classroom, having good classroom routines in the hope that then that would eliminate potential difficulties further down the track. And I also think maybe because we were then all in it together saying these are things that we really recommend you do. Yeah. It I think maybe it's easier to hear that than when you're one-on-one hearing from somebody else. I think you should be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Or like your boss, you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:29

Um, so I think that was that was helpful. And actually, then I think I feel really proud of our new faculty this year. I think they've been.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

They've been amazing.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

Um, and such an awesome job of maintaining really high levels of expectation within the students, um, and real like have really hit the ground running in lots of ways. And I think that's been so it was really helpful at the beginning to have Kristen's amazing classroom management strategies because from one who has tried and tested them, you should put that thing behind a paywall.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

And they've been so supportive of each other too. Because that's we also know it's really important that when you come to a new place you don't know anybody. That's really hard. And so building that community together, yeah. Um and we have like a Slack channel that's just for new teachers, no administrators are on it, so you can post whatever question you want, and it's okay if you don't feel like um, but posting just random questions that come up and the way that they help each other with that, and then helping each other in the faculty workroom and everything, like they've been really helping each other along the way, which such great colleagues and so supportive of each other.

SPEAKER_04 19:42

Right. It makes it feel much more collaborative rather than they're the people that don't know anything, and right they're the people who have all the received knowledge, like it's much, it's much more fun to feel. Yeah, I always feel like I just read a book recently and they were talking about how you feel, oh, it's the Great Gatsby. I'm teaching Great Gatsby, which I'm so like what was that? I'm teaching it to my juniors, and Nick Caraway talks at the beginning about how he felt um like he didn't belong in Westtag until somebody asked him for directions if he was to go. And it was it's one of those moments where you think that's totally right. Like you think the minute somebody asks in the new faculty channel, what do I do if I'm gonna be oh like who do I need to contact? And another member of the new faculty answers that question, I feel like level up. Yeah, it actually creates a sense of belonging. Yeah. Um, yeah. So I think that's been really helpful.

SPEAKER_06 20:36

You guys really built that intentionally too, even in the way, like I remember as we were making the schedule, it was like uh set up your portal party. Yes, they're like a lot of fun, yeah, and then invitational the teachers all I mean, like some of that stuff you only do once a year, right? So, like also invitational to the teacher who's been here already for one year, but like has only done that once before, right? It's still like there was an openness, I think, of that. And even in I got to support some of the newer science teachers this year, and even in their conversations, as I did sort of like check-ins, it was like the way that they had felt so supported by by the two of you specifically, it came up numerous times because it just felt like anywhere they turned, they had support both from you guys, but then even from some of the other people that had kind of come in and supported and from each other.

SPEAKER_04 21:19

Right. And I think that is actually I've worked in a lot of different schools, and I think that is a real mark of the community here at LCA that there are, even at the beginning of the year when we were planning for new faculty, we were thinking, okay, if people have questions about the portal, let's tell them to go talk to David Balthier. If people have questions about whatever, that there are just people who are so willing to help and really happy to assist in whatever way they can. And people just need to know who to ask. You know, it's not like everybody's sticking to their own thing, doing their own.

SPEAKER_06 21:53

Everybody's so helpful. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Which really does go back to actually the thing I was gonna say when you started talking about. Like the mentoring structure and hospitality, yeah, is that this actually also is another beautiful example of our faith integration. Right, right. Yeah. The whole structure of this mentoring program is the idea that we're a body who are living in community and doing work together that has meaning and matters. Right. And I I j like I'd so meta, but I love it because it's giving people the experience of what we're hoping is what they will be able to give students as the experience. Right, absolutely. That is absolutely priceless. I think you you gotta live it out.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

So I mean it's it's why we work so hard in our ninth grade orientation and fifth grade orientation. So we don't want kids to feel yes when they're new to LCA that they don't know where to go. And we encourage our our students to be welcoming to the student that's sitting by themselves in the cafeteria. Like I think it is the it's the faculty equivalent of that.

SPEAKER_06 22:50

Yeah, it articulates value to people before they ever really.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Yeah, it does. I uh I one of the things that has been special about this year's crop of new teachers, too, is that they came, there's a variety of experience levels in the cohort, right? I think we have teachers in their first year and their like 30th year or something like that. Um, and I mean that's something that's really special too. I know a lot of times in other schools, if you're you might get a mentor if you're new to the field, right? You don't get a mentor if you're just new to the community. And I think there's something about being a small community that can actually feel harder to infiltrate than a large one. You walk into a big pond, it doesn't matter what size fish you are, like you'll find other fish like you. Um, but in a small community, when it can feel like there's so few of us and everyone knows who these like special needs, who is David Pothier? Like who are these special people? Um, being able to gather that cohort together, they have a sweet group identity, I think. Um, and have been able to, some of the more veteran teachers in that group have been able to be become a real curricular and instructive uh support to the others.

SPEAKER_06 24:11

Even from day one in some situations of like walking into the classroom that the one with 30 years can turn around and say, hey, Dip, you tried whatever. Yeah. While they're trying to figure out, you know, where they're supposed to park your car. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

So that I think it's yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think that was part of why when we ran sessions for teachers throughout the year, we made them optional because we recognized that there was there's a real difference between what teachers need and the last thing we wanted to do was take up their valuable time on a Tuesday afternoon. And this was not scratching an itch. So everything that we ran, we would always send out material ahead of time. If it could be an email, we made it an email. Amen. This year. And then I think we find that it was kind of the teachers who were either really community oriented and wanted to just hang out and chat that would come. And have snacks. And have snacks. Always snacks. Always snacks creative world changing. Um were the newer teachers. And I think but the veteran teachers who had everything together and didn't need the help felt very free to not come. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think was I could imagine too.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

I mean, I haven't personally been in this position, but as a veteran teacher, the prospect, especially if you've been somewhere else for a long time, the prospect of being new again in any community can be, I can imagine choosing not to do that simply because I don't want to start over again. Right. And so being equally sensitive to the experienced teachers' early experience here, I think is really critical. Um, and I want to talk a little bit. I'm gonna pivot a bit and talk about veteran teachers because new to the field teachers are not the only either new teachers or teachers in general that we have here. And I would love to hear from you as a veteran teacher, um, veteran here, veteran in general, veteran in general, like all of us have had a long career in education and have been at LCA for different amounts of time. Um, but if let's share a little bit about how veteran teachers actually are invited to continue to grow here, um, because that doesn't necessarily look the same as a new teacher. Um you've done some work there. I wonder if you want to share a little Becca.

SPEAKER_06 26:46

I think also there's this might be a little bit of a tangent, but I think also there's a difference for those of us who had veteran experience in education and those of us who had veteran experience in Christian education. Because I think that is the piece where I as even as I'm interviewing for different positions, get the most sort of questions from people and and honestly, in some ways, a really beautiful opportunity to take your teaching to the next level. Um, if you're a person of faith and you've been teaching in a situation where you haven't been able to talk about your faith before, the fact that not only are you allowed to, but actually we're gonna ask you to do that, uh, I think has has been a unique opportunity. And walking alongside veteran teachers in that space has been interesting. Yeah. Um, but that's more been an opportunity for growth. I think some of the some of the beauty, I mean, we know like the best way to learn something is to teach something, right? Some of the beauty, I think, of coming into this community as a veteran teacher is that you have opportunity to continue to grow in your own gifts by the nurturing of the others as you come in. I mentioned that a teacher who had come in this year with a ton of experience. And even in the first like session that we had had together, a teacher was talking about a challenge that they had in terms of classroom management and also differentiation within the class. Um, and so I think for a teacher who's come in with a lot of experience, there's right away an opportunity to do some nurturing and sewing in, and you're you're coming in like with a built respect because you're coming into a community that has that sort of support built into it uh already. Um yeah, I don't know if that is exactly I think that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

It's certainly I've I've spoken to many veteran teachers about the invitation to become a teacher of teachers and to become a mentor to other people. And um I I think that is a way to grow, certainly. But there are also other, I mean, we have veteran teachers who are doing new things, pioneering new um structures for AI and who are changing curriculum and who are teaching new classes after teaching the same classes for 20 years. And I think the there is something, I mean, you tell me, but I have always felt like there is an inherent desire here to continually reinvent oneself, to continually reflect on what you're doing, what you're interested in, where God is calling you to press in and lean in. And sometimes those invitations to do new things truly are coming from a spiritual space. Um and that's always been very celebrated and kind of a natural part of being here. I don't know if you agree that that since I mean the 15 years I've been here, that has always been part of who we are. I don't think we have anyone who is fixed on just what they're doing the way they're doing it. There's an incredible openness here.

SPEAKER_06 29:46

That is the beautiful flexibility that we have as a private school to be able to continually find the best way to do something in a in a larger shifting space. You know, sometimes that's counter-cultural too. And yeah, we're we have, I think, I think you've especially created this even in your principal role, but there's like this real high capacity for risk taking and stuff. Sorry, everybody. But but in a great way of like, let's just try. I mean, I that to me was a new attitude in coming to LCA. Let's just try it. If it doesn't work, we'll clean up our mess and we'll move on to the you know, the next thing. Not at the expense of anything. I think there's been careful attention to that. But um, even just in looking at the ways for a little while, I got to help create the course catalog each year for you know what supplies were and they would change with in the years. Teachers weren't stuck in like this is my book, it's the only thing I teach. Don't make me teach anything. There is a desire, I think, especially for that teacher who's maybe gotten tired in their past school of what they you know had to do, what was set for them. There's a lot of opportunity in the English department. I think you guys experience that a lot as good new books come out. Yeah, we can teach good new books.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

Well, and I think we had the freedom to do that because we're a smaller private school. You know, when I was teaching in the public school, so much of my curriculum was dictated by the um area in which I lived and by administration, not by classroom teachers. Um I was teaching at a big public school in a big district, and we were moving towards buying in scripted curriculum, which I think for me as a teacher, that is the fun out of it. Uh you know, exciting uh thing to teach. And I know that the students in my classes I think get excited about things that get me excited. So if I love a book like The Great Gatsby, then they also have to love The Great Gatsby. Um but that doesn't, I mean, that doesn't happen when you're teaching to a script. And I think that's one of the things that I've really appreciated coming to LCA is just the autonomy that I have within my own classroom to make decisions about what is best gonna serve the curriculum. And even in teaching a subject like AP language and composition, where I'm preparing students for a very particular exam that they're gonna take every year, that is a national exam or a global exam. Um I teach it differently. So this is my third year teaching fourth year, third year teaching it, and I've taught it differently every year and use different texts every year. Partly because I think sometimes I just make life harder for themselves, but also it's more interesting to me teaching me things, and particularly in a course like that, to be able to use current events things. Yeah. Um, and I think as a veteran teacher, that is a way to keep your experience fresh. You can constantly be able to use different things in your French teaching, Kristen. You can use all manner of things, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yeah, new laminated products. Oh wait, and LCA also um helps a lot financially with different opportunities. So um man, at this point, like eight years ago, I think LCA paid for me to go to Israel for two weeks and take a Bible class there. Um, so that's a really special thing that like that was a special grant, but there's also Did you get a master's degree while being here too? Or did you have that prior? Um finished it while I was here. You finished it here, yeah. Um yeah, but LCA helps out with yeah, paying for advanced degrees as well and other conferences. I've done that twice. Yeah. It's a good benefit.

SPEAKER_06 33:35

There's also a I feel like I'm a little redundant, but there's like another beautiful representation of like we as educators then are delighting in the process of learning, which is what we want our students to do. Like we're engaging our own curiosity in it. And I think that's something that as a veteran teacher can you can get stale in in settings, right? If you're not within a community that is just so curious. I mean, our random Slack channel is evidence of the level of curiosity within our employees, because there's just always something there's always something going on or um themed snack on all kinds of things.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

I think that also being a small school, first of all, I want to like echo and affirm it is a value. I was saying to somebody this morning who was interviewing me for something else, who had asked, like, what are some core values or what are some ways that LCA supports teachers or something? Very thematic day today. Um but I said, I think the most supportive thing I can do for teachers is to protect their autonomy in the classroom, which sounds counterintuitive. A script curriculum sounds supportive, but it really isn't. It's stifling, it's suffocating. Um, and so that autonomy is of value and has been, at least since I've been here, and I'm sure since we began, that there would be this trust in teachers' judgment around what kids need to be taught in order to walk away with the skills that are the priority. Um but and also in a school our size, you are very often the only teacher teaching the course that you're teaching. And for a new teacher or for a teacher teaching a new class, even who's been here a while, I think that can be an intimidating, yeah, it could be a very lonely experience, right? Where you're you have all this autonomy, no one has told you exactly how to structure every day. Of course, we have curriculum maps, of course we have resources, but um to be able to in our own way manufacture that collegial, that departmental community that um, you know, we have division heads who've taught classes that other people are teaching now who can come in and kind of help. And we do have to intentionally create that community, I think, because many of our teachers are teaching a class and they're the only one teaching it. And so they don't have that sort of like co-teaching vibe that they're gonna get in a public school, which is a benefit of being in a larger community. But I think we've all been very intentional about creating those um collaborative spaces in our own ways. Yep. And that autonomy is great once you learn how to ride the wave and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_06 36:27

And part of what you guys in the mentoring program are providing support for is the sort of undergurning of that so that there is more bandwidth to put towards all of that stuff that becomes the joy, I think, for teachers when they're in a setting like this.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

Right. Yeah, because the reality is you might be the only person teaching algebra to this year, but this is not the first time that algebra 2 has been taught at LCA. Therefore, there is somebody else around who did that course for you, right? And it's just a matter of accessing the knowledge that's already in existence here. I think one of the things that we tried to do at the beginning as well of the year with new teachers is to have informal opportunities for community that normally revolved around food. Um and that was important. So I think partly for new people, new people to get their questions answered, but also just to but there's there's real um, there's a real sense of community and a shared experience as well. And I can think of like even early on, one of the mentor meetings that we had after school, we had a new teacher who just had had a bad day and was able to come in and share about their bad day. And someone else was able to be like, yeah, me too. I feel like that. Like they we were talking about what was it you were talking about, teaching being like a there's like this immediate when you're teaching, it's it can be very constantly get immediate feedback, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Oh my gosh, yeah, it's from the students that you're in front of the class, you know if kids find you boring in that moment, if they're annoyed or whatever, there's no wondering, you get it right then, yeah. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 38:12

And you're it's lonely, you're the only person in that classroom.

SPEAKER_00 38:15

It can feel really discouraging.

SPEAKER_04 38:16

You put a lot of effort into the class and everyone's yawning. Exactly. So to be able to have a space where you know it's maybe we're not sharing necessarily like curriculum ideas, but we're sharing experiences and we're saying, yeah, me too. My class thought I was boring today as well. And you know what? I maybe didn't teach the best lesson of my career, but tomorrow I can do something different. Yeah, that's fine. That's a normal teaching experience.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Yeah, normalizing the peaks and valleys, right? Yeah. Um I also as we talk about autonomy, um, I'm thinking a lot about the now, this is gonna veer out of mentorship and fellowship and and that sort of support. And but it's relevant to this conversation. The structure of our faculty evaluation and like supervision cycle, I think, has been very intentional as well. And I there was a a newer faculty member who said to me earlier this year, it was like hippy jippy time. Listeners, Ippy jippy is a very funny little term that we have for our individual professional growth plan. IPGP, Ippy Jippy, do you get it? Ippy jippy. Um in that sort of season, and a teacher had said to me, I've never been asked to help write my goals before. And it had never occurred to me actually that it had never occurred to me that teachers would not be invited to take part in writing their goals until I actually reflected on how other schools are structured. Um and I think that's really important too, that I am not sitting down with division heads every year and saying these are the things you need to tell your teachers to do. Um, even our uh pedagogical philosophy is there are a thousand ways to engage in that. That's not just a one-size-fits-all, nor does everyone have to do it the same way. Um, and I think that's been really important too. And and Becca, you you built that. You built that cycle.

SPEAKER_06 40:29

James Songton and I had just leaned into support him in the first year that I was here. And I think actually one of the things, even the step before the goals, but mirroring the same thing, was that create we sort of created this like chart full of like these are all the kinds of things that can happen in supervision, the formal observation, uh, the portfolio, the teaching portfolio, the um a peer observation, student feedback, uh, you know, like a number of different things. And it was like instead of requiring these at the same rate for every single teacher, the teacher who's been teaching for 30 years is gonna need a very different kind of setup than the teacher who's been teaching for two years. Why don't we create the list of the kinds of things that are gonna be helpful in the support in terms of evaluation this year, but then give the opportunity for that person not just to pick their goals, but also to pick what do you what do you feel like would be most helpful to you right now in your career? Are you looking for feedback from your students on a more consistent basis? Or do you want me in your classroom once a month? Like, is it more helpful to have the supervisor in there actually observing something formally and doing the pre-meeting, the the postmeeting, the um and I think that was new for me too, actually, the flexibility to sort of say, like, actually, you don't need a formal observation every single year. Uh, this within sort of the structure of what your personal goals are within that. And I don't know, I thought that was kind of that was kind of different for me uh and and cool to be able to create that structure because it I think it puts back in the teacher's hands as a professional, where am I trying to grow? What is the area of this this field that I'm in that I'm most pass passionate about, that's most interesting to me, that I feel like I need the most growth in, or that the way that I prefer to get my feedback, you know, all of those things that I think we differentiate for our students all the time, but we've maybe been less ready to differentiate for ourselves in some of those ways. And that was some of the thought that went into creating that at BJP and then the development of those goals. And I I'm always as a supervisor, whenever I was supervising a group of people, I was always thinking of it as a group of students, not in a demeaning way, just in it's exactly the same. You have learning objectives and you're trying to get towards something as a professional. So even in constructing goals, I found it was helpful to be like, I'm just gonna write these like swabats, like that's how they work. I want to be able to do this thing by doing this thing, and so I'm gonna put it that way and try it. And for me, that made sense in the way that we're structuring that.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Yeah, and inherent, I think, in that process is a genuine, very sincere trust that, and I hope you all hear this when I talk to faculty in PD sessions, right? That there is a sincere trust that every teacher here is here because they want to be a great teacher and they love kids and they love their content area. And when that is assumed, of course you would want some someone who's aiming for that same thing to be part of writing what that yeah, what in what order we're gonna build kind of a plan for conferences and resources and and opportunities to grow. So um, I mean, that's it seems silly to say that out loud, but I don't think that's always present in every community.

SPEAKER_06 43:53

Because I also think our evaluation, the way we're looking at it, is much more upside down, as in the kingdom. Of like it's not it's not uh grading our teachers, it's uh how how am I creating foundational support for you to get to the thing that you're trying to get to yourself? And what am I providing that is actually helping you get there? If my formal observation of you every single trimester is not actually serving your teaching, it's certainly taking up my time, you know, erasing yours. So then what what is the thing that we can do that's actually gonna provide you? Or to the point you were making before, Kristen, what classes are there that I can take that we have the ability to be able to finance? Yeah, or even um, I mean, I've said this a number of times, but like what classes can I can I right now go sit in for you so that you can go observe a peer who's you know presenting something or that you're gonna collaborate on later? And yeah, I just think those opportunities. Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

We're uh sort of nearing time. I have um two questions left, and they're kind of pointed questions, but in your own words, what would each of you say keeps what keeps great teachers here?

SPEAKER_00 45:12

I think one thing is feeling like the administration has your back. So I think what you've talked about before just now about being supported and stuff, but also feeling like very much like the administration has your back, which I know is not true of a lot of schools from people's stories. Um, but I think that makes it less stressful and more joyful to do your job.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

I didn't pay her to say that. She didn't.

SPEAKER_03 45:40

I will accept if you'll say you've been five.

SPEAKER_04 45:49

Um I think for me, one of the things that I actually is connected to what we were talking about earlier, I appreciate the fact that um everything is able to be changed. So there's a and there's a willingness to listen to feedback from people and then to very non-defensively to non-defensively listen, and then if there's something in that to allow that to change some aspect. Um, and I think I've really appreciated, I appreciate that. Like the fact that we are willing to just because something has always been done this way, doesn't mean we need to keep doing it that way. Obviously, the foundational things are there, what we want to be doesn't change, um, but I think how we want to get there, how we want to achieve that because we we are also working within a changing student body and a changing world. And while our values are fixed and our love for Lord Jesus is what motivates us, um, how that plays out in practice might need to change from subject.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

Yeah, I think also for for a lot, and I I've only I've only been in the classroom here for one trimester. So I think it's so much to the side of the teaching here, but what I do feel from our teachers, from our staff is I I think that the the way in which faith is integrated into every part of who we are as a community, and the way that there's like a commitment to living out those values through the ways that we structure things. And to your point, like even going back to reassess like is our orientation weak, living out those values of of creating opportunities for curiosity and delay and all like even within the structure of that.

SPEAKER_03 47:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:53

I would imagine that that is part of what really resonates. Um, especially, you know, when we get we get applications uh all the time, and so many of them highlight the faith piece. And then when we get to share, in I've sort of adapted your pitch that you also get to share about the diversity that we have here in denomination and uh and in culture and all those bits and pieces. I think it is the fact that there's a really intentional decision to keep bringing heaven to earth as much as possible in the work that we do every single day. And like that kind of kingdom work to employees who are motivated to be living in kingdom. I I think is one of the just the core pieces. Yeah, that really keeps people. I mean, teaching is a it's hard.

SPEAKER_03 48:44

It's very hard. I think it might be the hardest job in the world. But really fishing and teaching.

SPEAKER_06 48:53

Just never happily day. But to get going and to keep I think teaching is more rewarding than deep sea fishing.

SPEAKER_02 49:07

It's one of the most deadliest jobs, they say. Um that's really beautifully put. And I I would, I mean, that's what keeps great teachers here, I think. It's also what keeps staff here being part of something that is there's no question what the purpose is. Um, teaching, raising up, building the next generation of Christ followers that are going to go and work in every single industry, in every corner of the planet, um is the most hopeful thing that one could give their life to doing. And it's a joy. Um, and I do think it is evident and felt here in a number of different ways, even or maybe even especially on hard days or in hard seasons where there are things going on that are imperfect, is when the the kingdom part of who we are actually shines the brightest because we have a reason to stick with it and not give up and press in further. Great for each other. Yeah, yeah. It's a great segue into my next question, my last question, which is um do you have a sort of moment or maybe it's not a moment, but a series of moments or a habit or something like weekly prayer? Um, or the weekly prayer gatherings in your classroom where teachers come together and pray on Fridays. Do you have a moment or series of moments that you think really captures the relational culture of LCA faculty? Um, we often say that like teachers here don't just work with each other. You truly get to know one another and support one another on a professional, emotional, practical, and spiritual level. Um and you know, what are some of the moments or the things that happen here that could easily be overlooked, but really encapsulate that part of who we are?

SPEAKER_00 51:16

I think of the two common spaces for teachers, the lounge and the workroom. Yeah. And for the lounge, I have been in other schools' faculty lounges, and those are negative spaces. I've been in at least my answer. And you walk in and you do not want to be part of that conversation. And the faculty lounge is such a different place where people are sometimes it's really deep conversation, sometimes it's not, sometimes there's snacks, sometimes there's not. Um, but it's a lovely space to go into. And then the workroom is if any teacher has a question at any point, like any teachers who are in the middle of doing something that's probably time sensitive will stop and help and give advice or just listen to a teacher who maybe needs to share what happened last block. So both of those spaces are just such positive and um supportive environments.

SPEAKER_04 52:10

Right. Um I sort of have an illustration, so mine can be an illustration of what you're talking about. Um we had a an uh situation with a young first-year teacher, something happened, difficult interaction with a student. They were they came straight out of their classroom and into my classroom to tell me about it. Um, they were able to go and spend some time kind of thinking it through, but they had a class to teach in 20 minutes and they needed to do this. So I was able to go into the faculty workroom, find a teacher who didn't take a class, who was more than happy to just put in this teacher's class for 30 minutes while the teacher was able to process and write some stuff down, and then reach out to you and me. And I think that like in spaces that I've then didn't Josh make a cup of tea. That's right. Oh my gosh, the teacher a cup of tea. That I mean that to me felt like nobody had to be press ganged um into taking a class that was not their class or giving up their time to sit and talk to this new teacher who needed a bit of extra support. Yeah, um, I think that's really special.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Yeah, it is. Yeah, that's a great example of exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 53:30

This is a little a little bit larger. Um I was thinking about the faculty room in the space even of not being a teacher. And when I walk in there, I feel so welcomed to just like sit on the couch and jump at the conversations. And I think that says something about what our teachers are even creating within their own culture. But um, I think the service gala for me at the end of the year is also one of those moments where we're honoring people for the years that they've been with us and the work that they're doing. And a peer is talking about a peer that they've known for five, 10, 50 years. Yeah, you know, and um, and Isaac Milton loves to to create our our opening moments together. And and I think last year was the first year that I was I sort of had a little bit of um, you know, I there was a little dig at me in the opening moments, and it feels so he competes with Jimmy Kimmel.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

Like I think, I think he really could do one of those big ones eventually too.

SPEAKER_06 54:34

Of like feeling the way that you belong in the community, even in those moments of and and people's spouses are there and you know them now. And um yeah, just that like the way that that community is reflected, I think, in that particular event um at the end of every year as we celebrate what people have been doing. And I also just think the fun that is had, like there's almost always laughter coming from a room somewhere. It's we're not really a quiet building. No, like no, we're not especially if the seventh grade boys are just we're and like in the best way possible. Like I can be at the end of one hall and I'm I'm hearing a laugh from the you know the front hallway, and I know whose laugh it is. And Caitlin or me. Usually, yeah, usually, but I just think the way that to your point about you know, walking into the front, it's not as sad, there's not, there's not, it's not sad here. We are people are happy to be here and we're having fun. Like we're we're laughing a lot, and this is hard, it's hard work, and we're laughing a lot. Yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, that's like that says something about the relationships that have been built here within these.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

I love that. You're right, there is always laughter from employees.

SPEAKER_06 55:50

From students and employees, yeah, and often students and employees together. That is true, that is very true. You know, because that's also not true in everywhere. Yeah, there really is there really is connection happening here every single day.

SPEAKER_02 56:05

Yeah, and genuine appreciation. I think that's what I walk away from that service gala um every year feeling like the people here like each other. Yes. It's not even so much. I mean, I hope they like it here too. I hope they like the place and the the work. And the people here like each other.

SPEAKER_05 56:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:27

And that's there aren't like groups of people who dislike other groups of people, divisions don't compete with each other. Yes. There's no like, you know, sharks and jets. This is like a place where I do think I'm hard pressed to think of ongoing types of you know, conflict that exist. And there's really a deep appreciation, despite the fact that we're a community of experts in a million different areas. I think that's always kind of magical too, how you can have, you know, even in our professional development on Monday, you've got like the STEM table analyzing numbers and doing it very differently than the English and languages division who's really feeling their way through it, and the arts division that's all over the place. And the um the fact that we all get along in divisions, but then when we come back together as a whole group, we don't all then sit in our divisions. There is real cross-functional appreciation that is sweet and rare and a great model to students who are going to go to college and learn how to be friends with people outside their major and who and appreciate people who like different things and believe different things. And um, I think that that's pretty cool. Well done, everybody.

SPEAKER_06 57:52

I think so much of what we've talked about today, actually, whether it's the mentoring of teachers as a community, or the teaching fellowship, or the veteran teacher, or what you're just talking about, so much of it comes down to the value on individual people here. Yeah. Like the idea that each person is an image of God, whether they're student or employee. And individu I have never worked in a place where I have felt more honored for who I am as a person and what I bring to the table. And I think that that is just a marker of all the things we talked about today. We're gonna meet every new professional where they are, we're gonna meet everyone new to the community where they are. We're gonna provide the thing that we have for you.

SPEAKER_02 58:30

And they'll make us better because they bring something in.

SPEAKER_03 58:32

Absolutely right.

SPEAKER_02 58:34

Yeah. There is not a better note to end on. And so I want to thank you all for taking an hour of your day here on a Thursday afternoon. Um, a Thursday when we didn't have a faculty meeting. You stayed late anyway. Um, and I appreciate it so much. And I appreciate that you all are here. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

Thank you. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Thank you for listening to Cultivating Spaces, where good ideas grow. A special thanks again to Becca, Emma, and Kristen for lending their experience, insight, and wisdom in this episode of our podcast. And to LCA alum Timothy Sampson Class of 2021 for composing our theme music. Thank you also to all of the Lexington Christian Academy teachers, staff, parents, and students, past and present, for making this work possible. To God be He the glory.