Community Leader Roundtable

This Community Leader Roundtable may be a little late, but it's with good reason. I was considering who I wanted to interview for this little project, but I couldn't settle on just one name. I kept flopping back and forth from one person to the next because I was curious about everyone's possible answers. Finally, I decided to take a page out of Well-Balanced Teacher and perform a small group interview - a roundtable - with some of my favorite colleagues. So tonight, in a crowded bar with slower-than-average service and a meat raffle cage whirring in the background, my colleagues and friends Mary, Cathie, and Katie sat down with me to discuss some aspects of their lives as community leaders. 

First, here's some background on each of my interviewees.

Mary

Mary has been teaching for over twenty years. She has taught everything Language Arts as well as lead the school newspaper and yearbook committee. She has an intense love for history and is passionate about embracing St. Cloud as it evolves into a stronger, more diverse community. Mary is currently an advisor for our school's Trap Shooting team. Outside of work, she is deeply involved in her church's Social Justice and Concerns Committee.

Cathie

Cathie is a spitfire. She's the first to stand up for something she feels is wrong which makes her the perfect person to lead our school's We Act organization. She organizes food drives, Christmas gift donations, and many other activities founded to make our students' lives better. 

Katie

Katie is - she's going to be annoyed that I'm writing this, she's super humble - honestly, Minnesota's number one sought-after Autism teacher. She has developed a research-based, one-of-a-kind program to help her students with Autism grow and flourish in life outside of high school. Schools across the state reach out to her to ask for assistance in setting up her program in their schools. Throughout all of this praise, she keeps a humble, leveled head and asserts that she's "only doing her job." 

The Questions

I kept my questions short and open-ended, because of the roundtable format. This type of discussion requires participants to build off of each other's responses which helps develop nuanced answers to each question. 

1. In what ways do you see yourself as a "community leader?"

2. What strategies do you use when bringing others together?"

3. Finally, I showed them this image of the Social and Emotional Learning wheel and asked for their thoughts on how SEL shapes their work as community leaders.

The Discussion

This interview was interesting right from the start - Mary, Cathie, and Katie all hesitated answering the first question because to answer would mean they believed they were these heroic leaders working to make the world a better place, when in reality, they just didn't feel this way about themselves. After some coaxing, they understood my perspective as to why I believe they are leaders, but it was humorous to convince three accomplished women that they were such great influences on their surrounding community. They just saw themselves as doing their jobs, nothing special. But I assure you, these ladies are far from "nothing special."

Once they started engaging with the first question, Mary and Cathie both began by talking about inclusivity. They both work incredibly hard to show their students and their peers that they are thoughtful, welcoming people who would go out of their way to help you. Specifically, Mary detailed how she helps make new students more comfortable in our school. She begins by talking with them about their lives, then chooses one student and integrates them into the conversation as well. I've seen this happen and it truly is seamless. Mary, daily, performs this type of quiet magic in her classroom.

Cathie then spoke about how she also establishes open communication with all those around her, whether they be students or fellow staff members. She wants to be known as someone people can go to to talk. Being one of those people who go to her to talk, I can assure you that she is an expert at holding a conversation and being present. 

Katie had an interesting point of view that I found to be true, even for myself. Katie establishes common ground with those around her. Part of that practice involves the art of doing favors. Karma is a chaotic mess, but Katie knows how to take measured control of a situation and harness that chaos into a facilitating scaffold to achieve success. In a moment of complete honestly, Katie explained how she'll do small favors for General Education teachers, because she knows that some day she'll need those GE teachers on her side to fight for one of the students on her caseload. On the surface, this might seem manipulative, but it's not. She is building a trusting, symbiotic relationship with her coworkers to help make her students' lives better. 

Final Moments

At the height of our discussion, I asked Mary, Cathie, and Katie an impromptu question inspired by our conversation: "Do you have authentic relationships with the people in your communities?"

It was amazing to feel that question sink in at our table. Even I, the person who asked the question, reflected back on those words to see what my answer would be. Surprisingly, we all decided that, no, we do not have authentic relationships with the members of our specific communities. But why did we feel this way? What exigence demanded us to answer "No"? 

This unprepared question, spurred by genuine curiosity, stumped us. So we sat and we thought. Why did we answer "no"? After ruminating on our honesty, we determined our answer was influenced by our underdeveloped understanding of what it meant to be an authentic teacher. This was the hang-up. We weren't able to define the parameters and expectations of being an authentic educator. 

After our conversation died down, and we felt we had exhausted our interview questions, we quietly put our coats on, said our goodbyes, and parted to enter our cars and escape the heavy chill in the air. We left that bar tonight, not having an answer to the most interesting, surprise question of the evening. And that's okay.