Life with Lane:

A guide for roles, expectations, and operating norms This is me: Yep, its kind of a ridiculous school photo, which is why I love it. Its from my second year in the corps, when I taught 5th grade at Mariano Lake. I also taught 3rd grade my first year, and was a full-time assistant in a 4th grade classroom in an apprenticeship program at an Expeditionary Learning charter school in DC before that. I grew up in a combination of CO, MO, and OK (I claim Tulsa as my childhood home usually), went to boarding school in DC, and to school at Duke in NC. I love the outdoors and spent a lot of time during and after college leading backpacking and bicycle touring trips including coast to coast in summer 2009! Im a not very talented, but avid tr ail runner, cyclist and swimmer. I also really enjoy watching and rooting for the OU Sooners football team, Duke bball, and the OKC Thunder. Finally, I wish I had more time to read and have a stack of 30-ish books on my bedside table to catch up ona lot of war history, biographies, things about education and native history, Cormac McCarthy, Edward Abbey, Dostoevsky. This is Antonio: I tend to think about Antonio in every decision I make, so its important that you know about him. I love Antonio. He was a 5th grader in my class in my second year. For the first quarter or so the only words that came out of Antonios mouth were fuck or no or some combination of the two. I once chased him to the volunteer fire station down the road from our school and had to carry him back to our school kicking and crying. Because of behaviors like this, people didnt expect very much of Antonio. My head teacher was satisfied as long as he was quiet and not getting in trouble. By the end of our year together, Antonio and I could hug, and he pretty much always did his work and was proud of it. He had some of the highest growth in my classin fact, he was one of the best mathematicians Ive ever taught, though he was missing a lot of foundational knowledge that people had let him get away with not learning. Im so proud of Antonio for the work he did that year. Shortly into 6th grade, Antonios mom pulled Antonio from Mariano Lake after she was called into school about his misbehavior again, and I dont know where he is now. The way I see it, Antonio is an incredibly smart and potential-filled young man who is also incredibly mad at the world and at school for not giving him the things he needs. I was far from perfect, but when I gave Antonio patience, emotional support, and an insistent belief in his ability, his behavior changed dramatically. To me, theres no reason why we cant meet the needs of Antonio and so many other kids like him who are getting the short end of the stick and know it, but dont have the words to put to it. This, to me, is why Culturally Responsive Teaching is so importantto give kids like Antonio the affirmation they need while also providing them with the critical consciousness and agency they need to be empowered leaders rather than victims of an underperforming system who internalize that its their own fault. My lesson from Antonio is that its on us to both affirm our kids identities and challenge them to achieve undeniable academic growth so that they feel proud, confident, capable, and empowered; and the stakes are incredibly high if we dont.

WHAT are our roles in Teach For America?

Lanes Role An MTLD wears a few different hats in a small region like New Mexico. First, as your coach, I have the responsibility of coaching you to unleash students leadership. This is how we meet our vision, its what brought me to this work, and its what motivates me most as an MTLD. This means focusing on a combination of technical teaching skills and leadership skills and mindsets. In particular, Ill work with you on things like rigor, student voice in the classroom, your vision, relationships, and culturally responsive pedagogy, including cultural competence and critical consciousness. I will design and implement group learning experiences. I will also spend time getting to know people in all of our communities so that TFA can best meet the aspirations of our communities; this includes principals at your schools. Finally, Ill be your first point of contact at our region for questions or concerns, and Ill help make sure were all doing things we need to like Americorps paperwork, etc. Lanes Priorities First, I work to ensure were meeting the needs of kids and families on the Navajo Nation and in Gallup; and setting kids up to be empowered leaders of their communities. In order to meet the first priority, Im here to help you set a great vision and challenge and support you to stay true to it even when its hard. Im also here to support you in finding your own place here in our region. I also work to ensure we are collectively meeting our regional vision and meeting national expectations when relevant.

Teacher/Corps Member Role As a teacher on a sovereign nation and as a member of Teach For America New Mexico, your role is to ensure your students achieve meaningful academic growth and experience an identity-affirming, community-based education that sets them up to be empowered leaders. This will require that you understand the pathways to opportunity in your community and the stakes for your students and families if they dont achieve your shared goals. It will require understanding the obstacles our students face, but also the cultural strength and funds of knowledge you can build on, and your kids and communitys own aspirations. Finally, your role is to be a respectful representative of TFA in your community.

Teacher/Corps Member Priorities Your first role is to set a vision and make pedagogical decisions in the best interest of kids and communities, now and in the future, so that our students become the leaders of social justice here. Your second role is to own your own development and take advantage of your opportunities to improve, and to strive to find your role here for the long-term.

1) Kids

2) You

3) TFA

Your final role as a corps member is to be a respectful representative of our organization in your communities and meet expectations of TFAprogramming attendance, licensure, university, americorps, etc.

HOW will we work together?

MTLD CM Relationship We will partner together through a variety of means in order to help your students achieve their goals. This will include observations and debriefs, whole-community learning experiences, PLCs, development at All Corps, and can include shared student home visits, community and school events, co-planning, co-teaching, classroom modeling, etc. Why observations and debriefs? My goal is to help make sure you and your students are meeting your goals. Seeing you in action is a key piece of evidence that will help me develop an opinion about how things are going. Ill interview kids to get a sense of classroom culture, Ill see you teach to get a sense of your technical skill, and Ill see how rigorous daily work is and who in the room is doing the heavy cognitive lifting. Debriefs will be a chance for me to get your opinion, for us to norm on what were seeing, and for us to decide together what the most meaningful next steps will be. Why do I ask for data? Data is the clearest indicator of student achievement. All data is imperfect and its also not the only thing I care aboutthere are things data doesnt capture. But, the data doesnt lie. And, for me, data is the most efficient window I have into your classs performance wh ile working with 30 teachers. How often will we work together? The frequency of our work together will vary depending on your and your kids needs and the outcomes in your classroom. Unlike your CMA at institute, I will not be in your room every day or reading all of your lesson plans. Our work will focus on the monthly to year-long level. You can expect to see me in your room at least once per quarter, if not more, and might expect other forms of group or individual interaction over that time.

Lanes 3 Promises 1) Honesty: I will always be honest about my impressions of your classroom and your work and how I arrived at my perception. 2) Keeping priorities and generosity of spirit: I will always put your kids first, and I will assume that you are trying your hardest and want the best for your kids. 3) Valuing individuals and diversity: I will do everything I can to know you as a person so that I can best coach you as a teacher and as a leader for the long-term.

3 Commitments I ask of you 1) Honesty: I will always be honest, both with myself in reflection and with Lane in my communication.

2) Keeping priorities and generosity of spirit: I will put my kids first, even when its hard, and I will assume Lane and TFA have my kids best interest in mind.

3) Valuing individuals and diversity: I will bring my unique thoughts, opinions, and experiences to the table. (Your opinions matter for deepening our coaching relationship!)

Operating Norms 1) Communication a. 24-hour response: Even if it means saying I dont have an answer yet, I need to do x and will be ready by y, I want us all to try to respond to emails within 24 hours. You should hold me accountable to this, too. (Full disclosure: there were times I wasnt good at this last year. Truly, dont be afraid to call me out on it). b. Weekly website check: For communications sake, please check our website carefully each week and respond to action items by deadlines. (http://mtldlane.weebly.com/) c. Taking responsibility for scheduling: Given the inherent challenges of observing and meeting with 30 teachers in geographically wide communities, its important that we all take responsibility for scheduling our interactions. Please respond in a timely way when scheduling interactions with me, own remembering the time we will meet, and communicate ASAP when you know of a conflict. This will save both of us from wasting each others time. d. Honesty: Is it weird that Im bringing up honest again? Im always going to be honest with you about my perceptions and how I came to them. I invite you to do the same, especially if you disagree with me. Our goal is to make the best decision for your kids and classroom, not to be the person who is right. Our success together depends on our ability to be honest and authentic with each other. 2) Sharing Resources and Data: In order for me to be the best coach possible and have a full picture of your work in your classroom, its helpful for me to see your vision, plans, assessments and data. a. Sharing pre-observation: Ill ask that any time I come in to observe you share with me your current unit plan, your current unit assessment, your daily plan, your updated data, and your current perception of your classrooms biggest needs. b. Sharing quarterly: Also, regardless of when Ive come to observe, Ill ask you to share your updated data quarterly, which helps me make my action plan for the coming six weeks.

In Lakech T eres mi otro yo. Si te hago dao a ti. Me hago dao a m mismo. Si te amo y respeto. Me amo y respeto yo. (Si te apoyo y reto. Me apoyo y reto yo. You are my other me. If I do harm to you. I do harm to myself. If I love and respect you. I love and respect myself. If I support and challenge you. I support and challenge myself.)