Yesterday morning, I had the absolute pleasure of welcoming our new teachers to school. You simply can’t duplicate the excitement, nervousness, and genuine curiosity that accompanies starting a new job in a new organization. For many of our new staff members, they are also new to Costa Rica, which adds another layer of excitement and adventure to the mix. As a person who truly loves new places and new challenges, it is a lot of fun to interact with our new staff who are similarly embarking on a new adventure in their life. I love hearing about their past experiences, and what has motivated them to make a big change in their lives.
Aside from the opportunity to interact with new and interesting people, new teacher orientation is one of my favorite moments for the school is an organization. When we see ourselves through the lens of a new staff member, it allows us to be a little more objective about who we are and how we are approaching the work. It’s kind of like that first date, when you are trying to get a sense for who the person is sitting across from you. Of course it’s a little harder to run away screaming if you don’t like what you see when it comes to your first day at a new job, but the stakes are no less high just because you don’t have an easy out.
On a big picture level, one of the primary goals of new teacher orientation in a school has to be to convey the values of the organization. By the end of day one (ok, in my opinion, by the end of their first interview prior to taking the job), your new staff should have absolute clarity about what you values are and have some examples of what those values look like in action. Of course they will soon discover whether your espoused values match the day to day cultural reality of the school. Yet even if the lived experience doesn’t yet match what you envision in terms of organizational values, you are already behind if you aren’t at least putting your vision out there.
In addition to sharing the organization’s core values, I think there is nothing better on day one than to immerse new teaching staff in the instructional vision and core practices of the school. After all, teaching and student learning are the reason those new teachers are there in the first place. So I like the idea of going right in the front door and talking about instructional practice on day one. There will be time (hopefully) for the more mundane, yet necessary, aspects of orientation. Yes, how we take attendance, or call in a sick day are important details, but not nearly as important as how we lead a killer Socratic Seminar or Think Pair Share.
One of the hardest parts of the pandemic year was missing out on some of these orientation opportunities. We hosted virtual sessions and tried to create spaces for online interaction, but there is absolutely no substitute for meeting our new staff together as a group on day one in person. Our sessions together, including the opportunity to eat lunch together and have some of the small talk that eluded us last year, were an absolute joy for me this year. Our time together with our new staff left me more excited than ever about launching the new school year.