I was informed earlier this week that one of my fellow Biology teachers is leaving. Her husband is taking a new position in Iowa, and she feels that it's a little too far of a commute (we are in Illinois) for her to make every day.
I feel like a big, gaping hole has been ripped through our team.
When she and I started working together 7 years ago, it's pretty safe to say that we didn't really like each other that much. We are both very strong, confident women, and I think we really saw each other as a threat, consciously or unconsciously. We never got to know each other very well during those first few years of working together, her teaching in her room, me teaching in mine.
But that was before our current superintendent started our shift towards collaborative planning and away from teaching in isolation.
Before we knew it, we were in a team, creating common formative and summative assessments together, debating the merits of which state standards should get more emphasis, figuring out each other's strengths and playing up to them, and settling into roles within the team that, together, made us better. Our teaching has done a complete 180-degree turnaround, and we have come up with some fabulous ideas as a team that would have been a long time coming for me on my own. I know as I look back on what I used to do in class, I barely recognize the teacher I used to be.
But it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows, believe me. Being a part of a collaborative team is like being a part of a family-you have your disagreements, issues, and fights; but, in the end, you always figure out a way to get beyond them and work together. And we always did. Because we were more focused on doing right by our students than making our lives easier.
As a result, we developed a mutual respect for each other, a professional interdependence. We developed a way of working together that forced improvement on so many levels. That would never have happened if we had remained confined to teaching within our own, lonely classrooms. Never.
This is the power of teacher collaboration. When the right teachers are working together, they can do powerful things to improve their own teaching and, in turn, improve student learning.
We had a short department meeting yesterday to discuss how teaching assignments would change for next year due to her absence. As the meeting began, I thought, "Wait! We can't start without Dorrie!" And then I felt the hole being ripped open, realizing that she wouldn't be a part of our team again.
While I will miss her expertise, her putting up with and tempering my crazy ideas with a healthy dose of reality, and her tolerating my rambling on and on in her room about teaching, I am happy for her and her family and this new opportunity they have. I know she will use her collaborative powers for good, and not evil. And I rest assured that everything we learned together will benefit many other students of hers in the future, as well as the teachers she will work with. I hope they can see how valuable her contributions are, and, through her, see the true value of teacher collaboration.
And I hope my eyes will stop watering after I finish writing this.