Ihad been teaching for 26 years when COVID-19 brought some aspects of my life to a hard stop and added new challenges to my teaching and personal life. This disruption forced me to create new routines to maintain my physical and mental well-being. One strategy was a return to mountain biking. An aspect of biking I had always found rejuvenating was the rhythmic movement of my legs. This rhythm, paired with time in nature, opened my mind to reflection. As I rode along trails, I realized that the resiliency I needed to traverse varying challenges on my bike was directly transferable to my life as a teacher. I realized that educators, in leadership and the classroom, need six mindsets to build the stamina and balance necessary for a career inevitably filled with roots, rocks, and hard trails partnered with successes and joys.
Plan Your Line
When I’m biking, I always focus on what lies ahead. Is there a bend, a root, a rock, a stump, or another biker coming around that sharp turn? Maybe all those variations will happen at once. Keeping my eyes on the trail ahead of me is self-supporting. I need to steer where I’m looking so I have time to respond appropriately.
It’s the same with teaching. I need to know where and who my students and staff are, but I also need to know where we’re going. What skills do they need to build? What curriculum needs to be covered? Is there a holiday coming up? Is it too hot to focus? Is it report card time again? Have there been three straight days of indoor recesses, and is tomorrow a Friday with a full moon? Maintaining balance depends on our ability to plan our line by adapting the day or week to support staff and students with the reality of what lies ahead.
Find Your Community
Biking is a technical sport. There is athleticism, but there are also many tips and tricks to make riding easier, and you just don’t know what you don’t know. The biking community is a generous one in which people willingly support each other. Other riders shared that keeping my pedals horizontal when going downhill provides more space between my feet and the ground if a rock appears. Knowing to gear down at least three metres before I need to maintains momentum, making going uphill much easier.
Our goal with teaching is to support our students and help them grow. The stronger teachers are, the richer their teaching and students’ learning will be, so we need to take the time to support each other. Use your teaching partner, division partners, teacher-librarian, resource teachers, social workers, administration, and parents. Leaders need to embed time within the schedule and staff meetings so staff can engage with each other, discussing what is relevant to their students. We all have the same goal. We want our students to learn the skills they need to be independent, engaged, and functioning members of society. Educators have different experiences, skills, and knowledge to share. The system is better when we work together and support each other.
Try and Try Again!
Riding a trail once is just not satisfying. My first ride is the discovery ride. There will be hills I walk, obstacles I skip, corners I don’t have enough speed on, and corners where I have too much speed. The first time I ride a trail, I’m focused on what is ahead and can’t relax. I like to ride trails many times to build skill, to fully enjoy the freedom of a long downhill, to build confidence, and sometimes just to see where I’ve been and how far I’ve come.
We must also teach units we’ve taught over again with adaptations to strengthen aspects that didn’t work out as they should have, adapt mini-lessons to acknowledge the different strengths or gaps with a new group of learners, or implement a new teaching pedagogy or framework within the unit. Over the years, you may not even realize how much a unit has changed from the first time you taught it.
Our students need that, too. Do we allow them to experiment with a specific skill, providing them the chance to reflect on their growth and try again? Options like a number of daily routines, quick-write journals, and tracking how long they can focus on independent reading are essential. Not everything we do has to be new and shiny. Our students need the chance to recognize and master skills, followed by a celebration of their growth.
Experiment with Obstacles
One day, my husband and I loaded our bikes onto the van and travelled to a bike resort. The trails were levelled and clearly marked, so we started easy and built up. We loved the human-made obstacles. There were rails, ramps, and piled-up rocks that reminded me of cairns to mark the dead who had gone before, but mini trails skirted the obstacles, allowing me to opt out.
It felt like mid-trail ProD! I’d often opt out, but once I saw the other side, I’d decide to go back and give it a try. These obstacles built my confidence. When we were on trails at the edge of or above our proximal development zone, I was thankful that I had experimented in a safe and supported place and now had a new skill.
Professional development is available in many forms and on many topics. Topics from tech tools, trauma-informed teaching, equity work, literacy, numeracy, and more can be explored and implemented as needed. Opt-out or opt-in. New ideas are there to explore.
Crashes Are Inevitable
I have a dark scar on my knee from wiping out the first time I explored a simple trail that spring. I fly by that spot regularly now, not sure how I could have fallen, but I have new bruises and lumps, due to other trails I’ve explored, which are a testament to the fact that I’m still learning.
With all the variations within teaching, we need to acknowledge that not everything will go smoothly. We have to get back up, recognize the difficulties, utilize support from our colleagues and team to analyze the difficulty and plan for next time. Teaching can be compared to the design process. Observe, plan, and implement on repeat with a new chance each day or year. Eventually, that spot will no longer be an obstacle, but there will always be a new challenge ahead.
Make Space for Grace
Most of all, I have to remember to be kind to myself. I need to recognize what I’m doing well and how far I’ve come, whether on my bike or at school. After parent interviews, do I remember all the positive conversations, or do I focus on the one negative interaction? I need to focus on the good or the lesson learned to maintain a place of calm competence.
When I’m in the middle of a hill with screaming muscles, I don’t look up and focus on how far away the top is. I gear down. I look to the next tree, rock or root and focus on reaching that point. I look for the slight plateau in the hill to gear up and gain some power or catch my breath before hitting that last push to the top. These small moves make a tough climb surmountable and keep me moving forward.
In school, there are small spaces in your day to collect yourself. Go to the staff room to laugh with your colleagues or take a 10-minute walk over lunch. Find a moment of calm to reflect on an incident or challenging classroom behaviour. What stresses could be affecting your students? What changes could reduce those stresses? This practice ultimately supports everyone.
We provide space for grace for our friends and colleagues, and we need to do the same for ourselves. Riding has brought me bruises, scars, and, ultimately, joy. I love being out in nature, experiencing the rush of riding, and that same rush exists in teaching. Knowing how I approach challenges to support my well-being is important. Albert Einstein seemed to understand riding a bike isn’t always easy when he stated, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
Stefanie Cole
Stefanie Cole is a Sessional Faculty Member within Trent University’s School of Education in Peterborough, ON. She recently retired as a Vice Principal from the Durham District School Board where she spent over 30 years focusing on literacy, library, equity, and leadership in multiple K-8 settings.
This article is featured in Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Fall 2024 issue.