Reflecting on the Partnering With Pilot
On a cold, rainy Sunday morning, I arrived at the farmhouse early. Under Wendy’s close watch, Laura de-iced the front steps, MK prepped salad, and I heated water for Tea and set out bagels and cream cheese. All this to prepare for the arrival of eight local educators who had agreed to join us for a day piloting a professional development called Partnering With that Laura, MK, and I had been working on for the past year.
In early Spring, 2023, I approached Laura to ask about partnering with Stomping Ground. I had been a classroom teacher for the better part of twenty years and was feeling ready to transition out of the classroom and into something new. I had no idea what Laura would say - but as a camp mom and local Stomping Ground enthusiast, I was hopeful. To my excitement and surprise, Laura was really interested in the idea of us partnering together to create an offering to educators to share the Stomping Ground model.
A few weeks later, MK joined me and Laura at the farmhouse and we started brainstorming. MK is also a former middle school teacher, and we spent a lot of time sharing classroom stories and making a mess on butcher paper with all of our brainstorms.
Over the ensuing months, our mess of ideas got refined and organized into a 3-part professional development we call Partnering With that focuses on redefining community in the classroom and changing the dynamics of power in schools from power over to partner with.
Finally, on that chilly March morning, the start of daylight savings time, we were ready to try out our big idea.
We had invited local educators who we knew were already comfortable with the idea of trusting kids to join us for the day to pilot Partnering With and to literally partner with us for the next steps of the program's creation.
We started the day welcoming our team of educators into the world of camp by asking them to decorate rocks to represent their teaching superpower and soon we gathered in a circle to share our rocks and a bit about ourselves. We realized very quickly that the 15-20 minutes we had budgeted for our opening circle was far too little time but in the spirit of partnership, we let the voices of the group guide the way.
It was an amazing and emotional start to an amazing and emotional day. Over the course of the day, we gathered in circles many times. We explored ourselves and our students, discussed the purposes of education both actual and aspirational, and dissected how many aspects of our culture get in the way of empathy building. We also had to intermittently shoo the house cats off of the butter dish and out of the pizza boxes.
On a day that could have easily been spent sleepily hiding from the cold weather and the loss of an hour of sleep, we were energized. We took time to play, to explore restorative justice, and to get to know each other better. By the end of the day as we gathered for a final circle, one participant shared how remarkable it was that we had spent a day in training that didn’t involve complaining.
Instead we discovered what is possible when we embody the belief that it is good to be together.
We can’t wait to take our reflections and feedback to improve the program and bring it to more local educators and schools!
Lisa is an educator, community organizer, and a camper parent. She has been dually focused on making mathematics accessible, understandable, and enjoyable to her students and working to promote intersectional justice in educational settings. Lisa was instrumental in the creation of the Partnering With program that we are hoping to bring to local schools.
