Be a Bridge Builder

I just completed my 23rd first day of school, my 6th as a teacher. For some reason, that feels bigger than my other first days as a teacher. Time really does fly faster with every year in the classroom. Today, I found myself reflecting on all the relationships I have built with other teachers in my short time in the classroom. I feel so fortunate to have friends and colleagues and mentors that constantly help me to grow in my work. Those relationships are part of what continues to fuel my love for the classroom. 

As I was meeting students today and watching them in the halls, I was intrigued by watching the way groups of students ebb and flow and the way some students walk the halls alone. I was struck by the idea that “no man is an island.” When we think about teenagers, we often think about them traveling in packs; we think about the way kids operate in cliques or groups or whatever you want to call them. But I was really struck by the number of students I noticed going it alone on the first day of school today. 

Often, kids do spend some time in their adolescence as an island. Even when they are standing in the middle of a group, they can feel isolated, as if no one really understands them. They hold back because they’re afraid to share all of who they are with another person. That’s not always something we grow out of as we become adults. 

As I was watching all of this today, I found myself thinking about my role as a teacher in this intricate infrastructure of student “islands.” In addition to the many other roles that teachers fill each day, I think one of our most important roles is that of the bridge builder. It’s incumbent on us as teachers to be architects of relationship, to reach out to students who isolate themselves and those who hide their isolation in plain sight as they stand in the middle of a group but don’t fully engage. 

We’re meant to learn together. Learning in isolation doesn’t stay with us the way it does when we can talk about what we know and share it with others. If we want to be bridge builders of concepts in our content, we have to be bridge builders of relationships and trust first. I’m looking forward to continuing to build the foundations of those bridges tomorrow.