Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 127: Building Bridges: Creating Inclusive Mentorship for Educators at Lyons Township

Transcript

Ep 127: Building Bridges: Creating Inclusive Mentorship for Educators at Lyons Township · New Teacher Talk

0:01
Welcome back to another episode of New Teacher Talk where
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we discuss the most common challenges that early career
0:07
educators experience and find answers,
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whether you are in a rural, suburban, or urban setting.
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In this episode,
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we are going to talk about a topic that many early career
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educators think about,
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finding excellent mentoring and support from your district
0:24
as a new teacher.
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But, before we introduce our special guests today,
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let us do some quick introductions of our own.
0:32
I'm Dr.
0:33
Beth, one of the co-founders of this podcast channel.
0:36
My background in education includes being a high school
0:39
band director, teacher educator, mentor, and researcher.
0:44
And I'm Dr.
0:45
Anna,
0:46
an early childhood generalist who mentors educators on
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their journey toward National Board Certification.
0:52
Dr.
0:52
Beth and I are excited to have several special guests
0:55
joining us today on this episode, Drs.
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Brian Waterman, Jennifer Rowe, and Mr.
1:02
Ed Piotrowski.
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They're the key administrative team at Lyons Township,
1:07
Illinois,
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who have been instrumental in creating a well-respected
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program purposely designed to foster teacher conditions for
1:15
belonging with a focus on supporting BIPOC educators.
1:20
Welcome, guests.
1:22
Thank you for having us.
1:24
Tell us about yourselves and your role within Lyons
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Township's induction and mentoring program.
1:30
Would you start, Dr.
1:32
Waterman?
1:33
Yeah, I'd be happy to.
1:34
Thanks again for having us on the podcast.
1:36
My name is Brian Waterman.
1:37
I'm honored to serve as the superintendent here
1:39
at Lyons Township High School, which is located in the western suburbs, just a little bit west of downtown Chicago in Illinois. We always say we're a large high school, but we're a tiny system. We have two campuses with about 4,000 students spread across those two campuses, 2000 freshmen, sophomores at one campus and 2000 junior seniors at the other campus. As superintendent, my specific role in our induction and mentoring program, which I know Ed and Jennifer will get into here in a second. I oversee our central leadership team, and we work a lot to plan and coordinate the induction mentoring program in a way that we feel like really leads to successful outcomes for our newest teachers. And so Ed plays the most important role in that as Director of Human Resources, but also he has a couple of coordinators, induction mentoring coordinators that help him plan that as well. And I think one of the most important parts of this also is the feedback we get from our new teachers. I know Ed will talk about that as well. So that's a little bit about me.
2:38
Thanks so much, Brian.
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Dr.
2:40
Rowe, would you please tell us about yourself?
2:43
Hi, I'm Dr.
2:44
Jennifer Rowe,
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and I'm the Director of Equity and Belonging at Lyons
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Township School District.
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I'm excited to be here today with you.
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I've been an educator for about 26 years where I've had the
2:55
pleasure of being an English teacher, a Dean of Students,
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and this is my sixth year in an equity role.
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And it's been an amazing journey, in particular,
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focusing in on the needs of BIPOC educators and exploring
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how we can support them in particular through having
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communities where we're specifically looking at their
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unique needs and addressing who they are as whole people.
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Which is exactly where I'm sure that you do with your
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students, looking at them as whole humans as well.
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Our third guest today is Ed Piotrowski.
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Would you tell us a little bit about your role, Ed?
3:35
Absolutely.
3:36
My name is Ed Piotrowski.
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I'm the Director of Human Resources at Lyons Township High
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School District 204.
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This is my 26th year in education, just like Dr.
3:45
Rowe.
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All but one have been at Lyons Township High School.
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I started my career in Chicago Public Schools, but at LTHS,
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I've been fortunate to have served in multiple roles as a
3:55
math teacher, summer program administrator,
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assistant principal, associate principal,
4:01
and since 2009-2010,
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I've been very fortunate to serve in this role as a member
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of our central leadership team as our Director of Human
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Resources.
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Thank you for those introductions, everyone.
4:13
It's good to know all of the different roles you play
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because your administrative team has really developed an
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outstanding program that we really want to highlight in
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today's podcast.
4:25
So I thought I would start with Dr.
4:27
Waterman and in your introduction,
4:29
you talked about your role as superintendent.
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So my question for you, Dr.
4:34
Waterman is,
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please provide an overview of your school board's focus in
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supporting the district's strategic plan and goal three,
4:44
hiring a high quality, diverse staff.
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I think it's really important to talk about the beginning
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of that journey,
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which goes all the way back to the spring of 2022.
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Certainly as a suburban school district that has had so
4:57
much success over our hundred plus year history,
5:00
the spring of 2022 was significant because that was the
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first time that our district had taken the opportunity to
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really engage our community in a strategic planning
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process.
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And so planting that seed where we essentially throughout
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that spring of 2022,
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we invited about 85 members of our community representing
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all stakeholder groups from parents to alums to students to
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staff to board members to even future LT parents as well.
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We invited them to spend three full days with us,
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one in February, one in March and one in April.
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And really that process resulted in our board adopting a
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long-term strategic plan.
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The process itself, though, included day one,
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we really took an opportunity to look at our current
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reality through the lens of data and equity.
5:45
The second workshop,
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we looked at aspirationally kind of where we want to be long
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-term.
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And then the third part of that was identifying now that we
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know where we want to be,
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what strategies and how are we going to accomplish that.
5:57
And so I think when you look at this specific topic around
6:01
high quality, diverse staff,
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the seeds were planted when we had 85 members of our
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community highlight that as a priority.
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And so once our community came to the table and said,
6:12
we believe that hiring a high quality and diverse staff is
6:16
a priority, that became baked into our strategic plan.
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So that by the time June of 2022 rolled around and we were
6:23
presenting all of our goals and priorities to our board,
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it was very easy for the board to support that because we
6:29
had a community that was saying this should be a priority.
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And then since then,
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I think our Board of Education specifically has done a
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really good job of not only adopting that as one of our
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goals,
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but also being very explicit that we're going to have
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quantitative measurements around that goal.
6:45
And again,
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I think being in a community where you have a community
6:48
itself,
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but also a Board of Education that explicitly supports and
6:53
drives that work, really, really important.
6:56
Thanks for the timeline,
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I think that helps our listeners understand what can be
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done that ends up being quite robust data-driven when you
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involve the community and sharing their voices about what
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direction, the school district should be going.
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I compliment you for that.
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And the one thing that Anna and I have discovered and
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learning more about Lyons Township is this alignment or
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thread that runs throughout your administrative staff in
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support of hiring high quality, diverse staff,
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and that is unique quality.
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It's really embedded not only in your strategic plan but
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also in how it's being carried out, so thank you for that.
7:36
And as we look at how the community is at the base of all
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the decisions that you make, I want to ask you, Ed,
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from your perspective as the Director of Human Resources,
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could you share with our audience how the hiring process
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aligns with that district support of new teachers at Lyons
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Township?
7:59
Absolutely Dr.
8:00
Anna, I'm happy to talk about that.
8:02
As Dr.
8:02
Waterman mentioned, within our strategic plan,
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Goal 3 truly focuses on a high-quality, diverse staff.
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And even before we began the formal process of building our
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strategic plan during that initial school year, Dr.
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Rowe, in her role as the Director of Equity and Belonging,
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has been truly influential, inspirational, resourceful,
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however many positive adjectives you can use to describe
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what she's done,
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to really help us refocus our hiring practices.
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So they are in line with our district's equity plan and our
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strategic plan.
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So it really starts at the beginning.
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It's intentionally designed to reflect our commitment to
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equity and inclusion,
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which as we've discussed is a cornerstone of our strategic
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plan.
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Over the past few years,
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we've revised our process to incorporate equity questions
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into both the written application and video portions of our
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application process.
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And that's to ensure candidates share their perspectives on
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fostering inclusive learning environments,
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regardless of what role they'll serve at Lyons Township
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High School.
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The materials that we receive and review,
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those video submissions that we get,
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those are all reviewed by a diverse group of
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administrators, which include leaders in curriculum,
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equity, human resources, student services,
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building administrative leadership, divisional leadership,
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you name it.
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We have multiple people reviewing these materials prior to
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the selection of candidates.
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And so that really ensures multiple perspectives in that
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evaluation process.
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Once we have come together as a group and reviewed
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candidates,
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and we've decided who we're going to bring in for that
9:48
interview,
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that next part of our hiring process really begins.
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And again, Dr.
9:54
Rowe in her role is really instrumental in that.
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She leads focused training for all of our certified staff
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interview panels on interrupting bias in the hiring
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process.
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Our goal for doing that is to ensure a fair and transparent
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process for all of our positions that we are hiring for.
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The interview team is thoroughly or thoughtfully composed
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to represent the diversity of our school community,
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including student voice, where possible and appropriate.
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And that ensures that our hires reflect the values and the
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needs of our stakeholders.
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And again,
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it's all aligned to our strategic plan goal of having a
10:34
high quality,
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diverse staff that is reflective and representative of the
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communities that we serve.
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It sounds to me as if your hiring process is really
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thoughtful in terms of how you're going to not only
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recruit,
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but also retain those individuals at Lyons Township because
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you're taking so much time to ensure that each hiree is
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going to really feel like they're truly a member of that
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community and that the values that they hold are those of
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your community.
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I really appreciate how Ed was talking about Dr.
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Rowe's approach to really helping with the interview
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committees and preparing the process.
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Seems like the perfect time to ask you, Dr.
11:25
Rowe, might you go into more detail for our listeners,
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describe for them your affinity groups in action and how
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you personally lean into creating a space where BIPOC
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teachers can thrive?
11:41
Going back to our team,
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our belief has been how are we fostering those conditions
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where everyone can belong?
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And not just kind of saying that, right?
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But how does that show up in our actions?
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And so that has been really such a big focus for us again,
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from that strategic plan down to how does this come about?
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What does it look like?
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And I just wanted to comment on what Ed was sharing about
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the interview process.
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And it's really that conversation of how do we not just
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kind of one and done something?
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How do we center that every time?
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So every interview, how are we coming back to this?
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How are we talking about it?
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How might it show up?
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So when we've gone through all of those applications,
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there might be people who have a different accent than our
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own.
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How are we giving people permission to say, that's welcome.
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And you have to constantly come back to those things and
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give people that permission and understanding that that
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belongs in our community.
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Because they might not have heard you the first time or it
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might be a different situation.
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So again,
12:40
these conversations of bringing it up and normalizing that
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has changed the folks that we've been able to bring into
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our team.
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And that's made us much better.
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And so we know once those folks are here,
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we want them to stay, right?
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We want them to remain with us because the hiring part is
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just the first step.
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But if people are not feeling like that voice is welcome,
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that they have a place to use it,
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because they might be the only one,
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that's been my situation many, many times in many places.
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It's hard then to feel like you belong and to plant roots
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and say that you will stay.
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And coming into LT,
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that was something that we talked about with Dr.
13:18
Waterman, with Ed and our team of what things,
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what conditions did we need to foster so that as we were
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beginning to shift what our team could look like and
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broaden that,
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that that was what our LT community or family look like.
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As we've done that, creating our affinity space,
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which was something that Dr.
13:37
Waterman and Ed Piotrowski were open to from HR to say,
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how can we create the space for our teachers?
13:45
Again, it's just another tool or resource.
13:47
We see it as our, not only as professional learning,
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but also as a way to build those relationships with our
13:55
staff of creating community.
13:57
And we know,
13:58
especially that something out of the pandemic that we
14:00
learned,
14:00
that we can't just offer professional learning that's like
14:03
skills-based,
14:04
but also how is it looking at the needs of that educator?
14:08
Because if they are successful and thriving,
14:11
then we know that's going to translate into the experiences
14:14
in the classroom with our students.
14:17
Dr.
14:17
Rowe,
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I'm taking from what you've shared some really key elements.
14:21
I'm hearing the word conversations,
14:24
folding that back into the community, voice, belonging.
14:28
These are all very powerful words that really frame the
14:33
commitment by the district to really take the strategic
14:37
plan and put it into practice.
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As you mentioned, the first step is hiring.
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Ed does a great job with that.
14:43
But then the second step is helping them stay in the job,
14:46
to let them feel a part of that community that they are
14:49
valued, they belong,
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they're part of this community that aligns with what your
14:54
community looks like as well.
14:57
So having the affinity space,
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sometimes that is not something for everyone.
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So we offer the affinity group.
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So we have our BEST Affinity group,
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which is looking at BIPOC educators.
15:07
And we also have our group,
15:09
which is looking at a learning community for all members of
15:13
our community that would like to join our centering issues
15:16
of connection and growing in their kind of social justice
15:21
consciousness.
15:22
So those would be our two affinity group spaces that we
15:25
have.
15:26
And those are offered to all of our staff and they are
15:29
welcome.
15:30
For a lot of people, it's just knowing that we have that.
15:32
They're like, wow, my school community offers that.
15:35
They might not partake,
15:36
but it's just great to see that and to know that it's
15:39
there.
15:40
We know that the work that we've done with our strategic
15:42
plan,
15:43
many of our hires have shared no matter what their identities
15:46
are, seeing your strategic plan,
15:48
seeing the offer of affinity spaces in your community has
15:52
been something that has made me want to come to work
15:55
there.
15:56
Then we have our educators who choose to participate.
15:59
So we push that out to them in our professional learning
16:02
catalog.
16:03
And then the other part is how are we giving that
16:05
invitation?
16:07
And as a team,
16:07
we've talked a lot about that in many ways of how are we
16:10
personally inviting people to belong?
16:13
You need to reach out to folks,
16:15
and we literally will have different colleagues say, hey,
16:19
this person's in my division or works close to me.
16:21
I'm going to give them that personal invite.
16:23
And we've also done a lot of work of offering events to
16:27
invite them to come.
16:29
So we've had like kickoff picnics,
16:30
Ed's office and mine have connected with that way just to
16:34
engage all of our new staff again to show them that how
16:38
much we value them and to really foster those
16:40
relationships.
16:41
As new teachers come to a community,
16:45
it's important that they have those opportunities to make
16:49
it feel like this is my work home.
16:52
These are the people that are going to be my friends,
16:56
my colleagues for the foreseeable future and to really want
17:00
to build that community into something that's positive for
17:05
everyone.
17:06
For me,
17:07
that is very intriguing and warm that you bring people in.
17:14
It's always about bringing people together to build
17:18
something greater than their individual selves.
17:22
I would add too, I think that the trick there is to take,
17:25
you know, we have a large organization with, you know,
17:27
over 300 certified staffs.
17:29
It's not realistic to think that a new teacher is going to
17:32
connect with all 300 staff right away or even throughout
17:35
their career to be candid.
17:37
But spaces like affinity groups, like division offices,
17:42
the barbecue events that we have for new teachers,
17:44
the hope there is that we take this large organization of
17:48
300 plus staff and make it feel a little smaller first so
17:51
that they can connect with some individuals in small groups
17:54
to really increase that sense of belonging.
17:57
That's a marvelous way to look at things.
18:00
So I'm going to put the question out there for all of you.
18:03
What advice would you give to administrators to
18:06
strategically develop a mentoring program that does give
18:10
voice to BIPOC educators?
18:14
I would jump in to start and just say that, you know,
18:17
when you go back to that strategic planning piece,
18:20
there's two things that I've not mentioned yet that I think
18:23
get at this question.
18:24
The first one is it's not enough to simply build that in as
18:28
a goal and have that as a strategic goal.
18:31
The adage that we measure, we value,
18:33
and we value what we measure.
18:34
You have to measure that quantitatively and report on that
18:37
every year.
18:38
Because if we don't take the time and we do this on an
18:41
annual basis, usually in the fall,
18:43
there's not a perfect time every year to report on HR data,
18:47
but that we found that the fall is probably the best time.
18:51
But being very explicit about that thing,
18:52
here's where we are at now compared to where we were a year
18:55
ago is really important.
18:57
I think the other piece is being explicit in that strategic
19:00
plan, you know,
19:01
our goal is not to attract and hire teachers that reflect
19:05
our community.
19:06
It's to attract, hire,
19:07
and retain teachers who reflect our community.
19:10
And so that last part of retention is what all of this work
19:15
is hopefully improving.
19:17
That's kind of my thoughts initially,
19:18
and I'm sure Jen and Ed have some additional thoughts.
19:21
Thank you.
19:22
I think as a leadership team,
19:24
having the resources to support those affinity spaces,
19:28
it has been so important that our educators know that they
19:32
can sign up, that we value it,
19:33
because we are saying we can host this during the school
19:36
day.
19:37
So we meet five times throughout the year during the day.
19:41
That allows them to have that time because so many people
19:44
have things after school, before school,
19:46
what are those barriers and obstacles?
19:48
You can have a desire to meet,
19:50
but if it's not specifically designed for them to attend,
19:53
it can fall by the wayside.
19:55
So they feel very valued because they're saying, hey,
19:58
this is your professional learning.
20:00
I'm able to give them professional learning credit for
20:02
that.
20:02
And we always focus in on the personal and professional.
20:06
And then we have a teacher leader,
20:08
and it's amazing because for me, she receives a stipend,
20:12
she helps to plan that.
20:13
So that's been something, again,
20:15
showing how much our district values that.
20:18
And then we also have those social outing times where we're
20:21
able to connect.
20:22
And then each of those individual teachers for someone like
20:25
me,
20:26
I'm able to schedule one-on-one time to know about what their
20:29
personal goals are, what their needs are,
20:31
and just those check-ins with those teachers.
20:34
One of our young teachers is working on going to graduate
20:37
school,
20:37
and it was helping them find a program and knowing that and
20:40
sending them information and helping them along the way.
20:43
That is the thing that they're now really connected because
20:46
they have that personal connection and know that we care
20:49
about them and their success as an educator and as a
20:53
person.
20:54
And the only thing I would add to what Dr.
20:56
Waterman and Dr.
20:57
Rowe were talking about would really be related to our
21:01
induction and mentoring program and how that all fits in
21:04
with the different efforts and the different things that
21:07
the previous two people have spoken about.
21:09
We have worked very hard in the past few years to really
21:13
take a look at our induction and mentoring program and make
21:16
fundamental changes to it in order to respond to a whole
21:21
new group of new educators.
21:24
And we have to remember that a school is an employer like
21:28
any other employer,
21:28
and you're gonna have multiple generations at work and
21:31
things that may have worked in terms of working with staff
21:35
members or different programs in the past might not be the
21:38
most beneficial or the most relevant now.
21:40
And so having an induction and mentoring program that is
21:43
responsive to that, I think is huge.
21:45
And one of the big changes that we built in to support all
21:49
of those other supports as well is to allow our new staff
21:53
to let us know what they are looking for in a mentor.
21:57
It is a big departure from how we were in the past and how
22:01
many programs might still be where that mentor is chosen
22:04
based on curricular alignment,
22:07
really as that first priority.
22:09
When I was hired, I was hired as a math teacher,
22:11
and my mentor was a math teacher as well.
22:14
Our new staff might not need that anymore.
22:16
They might need someone to help guide them through life at
22:19
Lyons Township High School as being an educator,
22:21
not necessarily as a math teacher or a Spanish teacher or a
22:25
social studies teacher.
22:26
So our induction and mentoring program coordinators who are
22:29
two certified teachers came up with the idea of creating
22:32
essentially choice for mentors and opening it up to all of
22:36
our certified staff to see if they'd be interested in being
22:39
a mentor.
22:40
So we have those partnerships created in a different way.
22:43
We also provide all of our new staff a curriculum partner
22:47
that will help them with curricular issues.
22:49
They're part of course teams.
22:50
They could be part of PLC groups.
22:52
They would be part of PLC groups and then possibly an
22:54
affinity group.
22:55
So there's lots of levels of support from entry into Lyons
22:59
Township High School as a brand new educator,
23:01
hopefully all the way through retirement and finding ways
23:04
that we can really support people all the way through.
23:08
I appreciate that you look for people that could spend
23:11
their whole career at your district.
23:13
I continue to hear throughout this conversation is that you
23:17
are such great listeners.
23:19
You're taking what you're hearing and implementing and
23:23
changing and finding great high-quality teachers.
23:28
That's so important.
23:29
We want to make sure that our listeners have the
23:32
opportunity to reach out to each of you with more
23:35
questions.
23:36
Might you share with us your contact information?
23:40
So my email address is bwaterman,
23:43
and that's at d204.lths.net.
23:50
Great, thank you, Dr.
23:51
Waterman.
23:52
For me, it would be JRowe, which is R-O-W-E,
23:55
at d204.lths.net.
24:00
My email address is EPietrowski, P-I-O-T-R-O-W-S-K-I,
24:08
at d204.lths.net.
24:12
You can always visit the LTHS website at www.lths.net for
24:19
more information about our organization.
24:22
That's a great shout out to the school district so people
24:24
can go there to get information,
24:25
and they can individually contact the three of you with
24:28
additional questions to learn more about your program,
24:30
maybe even come and meet you personally or shadow or attend
24:34
affinity group if that would be appropriate.
24:37
And I just wanted to share in case anyone doesn't have an
24:40
affinity group at their school district can look at the
24:43
Illinois Affinity Group Network where there is a list of
24:47
affinity groups that are open to educators across the
24:50
state. That's how we get some of our support in our work.
24:54
I really appreciate all that Dr.
24:56
Ayala put together when she was the Illinois State Board of
24:59
Education leader and helping create the Illinois Affinity G
25:04
roup Network,
25:04
so check that out and also if you would like to create one
25:08
you can get support from them there.
25:10
We will share all of those email addresses and websites in
25:14
the show notes, and we want to thank you Dr.
25:18
Waterman, Dr.
25:19
Rowe, and Mr.
25:20
Pietrowski for being our guest today and to our audience
25:24
thank you for being here.
25:25
If you found this episode helpful share it with a fellow
25:29
teacher and subscribe so you never miss an episode.
25:33
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25:37
we
25:37
are @NewTeacherTalk. Each week we share a helpful resource that you can download. For example look for the Tuesday Teacher Resource and also check out our Thursday Thought to keep you motivated. And, remember as a new teacher we are here to support you.