During my first year teaching in the classroom, I was fortunate to have a teacher on my team who mentored me. We didn’t have a formal mentoring program at the time so she did this out of the goodness of her heart. This leader, who grew quickly to become a dear friend, died last week. Not surprisingly, the church was full at her funeral, including former colleagues and students. Her impact and legacy are huge. In this post I want to share ten lessons I learned from this amazing educator.

Ten Lessons from a Master Teacher and Mentor

1. Build relationships. Get to know others, their hopes and dreams, their challenges and fears. Then support them by leaning into their strengths and celebrating achievements.
2. Listen with attention. Listen to understand, with your full self tuned into the speaker. The focus is not on responding or offering response, rather to give space to the speaker and let them know they have been heard.
3. Smile. Look into the eyes of others and smile. Let them know you see them and that they are important in our community of learners.
4. Keep learning. No matter how long you have been in the field of education, there is still much to learn. Teaching is complex and we learn more every day about how to reinvent education.
5. Collaborate. We are better together. Collaboration takes time and requires skills. Every team is different, so in addition to learning to work together as a team, we know that effectiveness may look different for each team.
6. Laugh. Laughter brings Joy and builds community. And laughter is never at the expense of others.
7. Have high expectations. Every person is capable of success in our schools. Pedagogical practices need to be adjusted, and appropriate scaffolds provided in order for maximum success.
8. Be a warm demander. Let students know you believe in them and that you will do everything you can to help them feel Belonging and success. Empower.
9. Make memories, have rituals. Circle up, have celebrations, create traditions. These are the things that students will remember, along with how you made them feel.
10. Love what you do and who you are with. There is no more important work than being a teacher. It is complex and challenging work, requiring many hours and lots of reflection and emotional energy. It is also the most rewarding work there is. When you love what you do, it shows and people feel the love.

“Teachers who love teaching, teach children who love learning.”
-Unknown