Surrender

I had a conversation today with one of the new LTs at my school. It was one of those typical on the fly, we've got a million things to do before getting back to class, conversations. This woman is a great teacher from what I've seen thus far but she has a tough class. It's like the universe pulled together the perfect storm of difficult to handle kindergarteners and put them in her class. I feel for her as a fellow teacher but  especially coming off my perfect storm last school year. Anyway, during our conversation I told her it will get better but only when you surrender. It's a must. You must surrender the way you've done it before. It worked, yes....before...in the US but it won't work here. You must hold onto the core of what you know is good teaching but work within the confines of what we have here. You must surrender. I know that was a hard thing for me to do but it happened. If you don't surrender you'll grow tired very quickly and lose focus on why you came here. I also told her to surrender the independence we're so accustomed to having. We're always a step or two behind. The ladies we work with have the upper hand in language, cultural experience and interpersonal connections. We cannot be completely independent. Interdependence is the name of the game here. It makes life so much easier when you realize there are folks out there ready and willing to help you. It's even better is when they're willing to push through the cultural and language barrier to be there for you, to console you, to rejoice with you and to just chat about life. So surrender my dear LTs and enjoy the ride. 'Cause as hard as this is, as teachers we know the reward is well worth it.