What if we were all a little more like Ms. Allen?
I had the opportunity to speak to April Allen, a JET participant in Boston, on a day when I was in dire need of joy, sunshine, positivity, and excitement about the work – and April certainly delivered on just that. Feeling weighed down by graduate school finals, job searches, and the state of the world, I got on the phone with April between classes and meetings to hear about her experience this year. Within moments of us connecting, I could tell that her energy, spirit, and passion for teaching was a force to be reckoned with.
It isn’t uncommon that paraprofessionals get asked to do more than their job description entails – in fact, this is common in most education spaces. In the American schooling system, we have normalized how educators are expected to have an “all hands on deck” or “it takes a village” mindset in order to fully commit to every child regardless of our role in a school. April Allen, current JET participant, is a perfect example of this. April is currently teaching 5th graders with disabilities in Brighton, MA.
Allen has been an educator during the pandemic. She was hired as a paraprofessional at the Thomas Edison K-8 school in Boston Public Schools working with the early grades April is pursuing a degree in Early Childhood Education currently. Since students returned to school this year, Allen has been assisting with both virtual remote learning and in school education of students. She works with teachers and students to help maintain work completion and create routines and systems for kids that can be consistent during a challenging and chaotic time. Allen spoke of students and families with ideas on how to mitigate challenges at home while learning, technology problems, and overall investment in learning obstacles.
During a recent conversation with Allen, I asked her about her experience in Boston Public Schools, as well as her reflections on being a new general education educator during a bizarre time. Allen is a paraprofessional but was given responsibilities and tasks of a general education teacher due to the pandemic. Allen describes the year as challenging, but consistently mentions ‘silver linings’ and positive outcomes to the numerous obstacles. Within the first few moments of Alex and April talking, she shared that her classroom has a COVID outbreak, and how traumatic that has been for her, but she emphasizes students. She immediately jumped to how they messaged parents, disinfected the classroom, and made sure kids could come back as soon as possible.
Throughout our conversation, Allen was positive, calm, and centered on students, while valuing her own humanity. A tricky balance for many expert educators to strike! I asked her about balancing family responsibility, school, and teaching. he talked about making sure she gets enough sleep, being organized, and helping with family and at school.
Allen talked about the importance of relationships she has at school. Her mentor teachers, other teachers and other paraprofessionals have all been huge supporters to lean on and learn from this year. She shared advice to all paraprofessionals to expand and build on relationships they have with other adults in the building - “they will look out for you!” Allen shared examples of other staff helping and supporting each other. Collaboration and self-care continue to be themes in conversations with teachers.
When asked about challenges and successes, April brushed over the hard moments and focused on successful moments with students. The COVID outbreaks in her classroom were scary and hard, she said. However, she quickly explained how her favorite moments have been when she has gotten the opportunity to teach students, and she reflected on specific lessons from the year. She explained that she learned the power of real, genuine relationships with students and families. She talked about coming from a place of empathy and understanding when helping students attack challenges. She also talked about relying on and leaning on her fellow educators and staff to troubleshoot, problem solve, and embrace challenges together. Allen also shared how thrilled she is that 16 of her students have returned in person and only 2 are still home learning online. April’s emotion, passion, and love of building relationships with students came through the phone during our conversation.
To no surprise, Allen closed with advice to other upcoming educators like herself, and reminded them to take care of themselves. “Take time for yourself.” She explained that she wished she had been taught how to do this more while she was in school. We could all use a little more of that – especially now more than ever.
I still think about my although brief, but powerful conversation with April often these days. When I feel weighed down by the challenges of the world, I aspire to have the perspective and positivity of Ms. Allen. And spread this within our JET community. I hope that we can think more about how we can sustain, uplift, and encourage the energy and passion of the April’s in the world, while still allowing them to pursue a quality of life that they desire and deserve?