The Rookery

I am so lucky. I wake up every morning excited for the day ahead and I end every evening, looking forward to tomorrow. I get to spend my days with young people who make me laugh and wonder. But, perhaps more importantly, I’ve gotten to spend my career with an amazing group of educators who also make me laugh and wonder and…so much more.

I’d never given it a lot of thought until I heard Christina Koch, the Mission Specialist on Artemis II, share her definition of a crew:

A crew is a group that is in it all the time, no matter what, that is stroking together every minute with the same purpose, that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other, that gives grace, that holds accountable. A crew has the same cares and the same needs, and a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked.

Suddenly, I realized what has made the past 23 years (!) such a joy. I have been a part of a crew.

Teaching at Prairie Creek isn’t for everyone. There have been great teachers who have decided it wasn’t the right fit. Those of us who have stayed have, I think, been drawn to being part of a crew. We hold the same purpose — teaching kids authentically, keeping them at our center, helping them realize their potential to make the world better. That is what we do all the time and we do it together.

What does it mean to be “stroking together every minute with the same purpose”? Maybe it means that at every faculty meeting, we take the time to share our students who may need an extra hug (or a quick reminder to head right back to class.) We all work together to support “our” kids. We celebrate each others’ strengths and triumphs. We stand in awe of the work our colleagues do.

We all juggle so many balls. And each of us has dropped a ball and had a colleague pick it up and toss it back in the air for us. There is never an expectation of recognition — it’s just what we do. One of my colleagues collected a list of “little treats” that each person on the staff enjoys. And often, just when you hit a low point, you’ll find one of those treats sitting on a table with an annonymous post it note. Someone noticed. Someone cared.

Is it always a bed of roses? No. We’ve had hard conversations. We’ve had disagreements about what we need to do or teach. A crew is a group “that holds accountable.” We have high expectations for each other. Sometimes, one set of needs conflicts with another. And that is when we are a group “that gives grace.” We work to listen and truly understand. We know that we all have the same motivation, even when we see a different path forward.

And then those last words that, frankly, brought me to tears: “we are inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked.” We have found ourselves here, in this little school, doing work we believe in. I am so glad I have my crew.*

* Koch ended her comments, “I know I haven’t learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me, but there’s one new thing I know. And that is, planet Earth, you are a crew.” May that be so — a crew is a pretty powerful thing to be a part of.