S2:E12 Relationships, Not Rapport

Kecia McDonald currently serves as a Complex Area Resource Teacher for English Learners in Kailua Kona, West Hawai'i. She is certified K-12 in Health and has been a Teen Health teacher, a Curriculum Coordinator, Test Coordinator, Title I Coordinator and substitute teacher. She is a 2020-2022 Hawai'i State Teacher Fellow and a 2022 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow. Kecia is the public school proud mother of two young men and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. She loves to travel and has moved 26 times. You can find her on Twitter @mcdonald_kecia or follow her travels on IG @what_hi_see

Key Takeaways:

• You will be a better teacher and administrator when you realize and enact education being about relationships and interacting with other human beings.
• Nobody will innovate or take risks until a community that is safe has been built.
• Teaching is professional yet at the same time deeply personal. It's a holistic profession.
• Building relationships creates a community. Building report creates an institution. We all want to work in communities.
• The light bulb moment is the click moment when it comes to building relationships.
• It's important that you pause and take time to let people know that you see, hear, and know them.
• Leaders need to model relationship building for their teachers.
• It's important to help teachers start improving by focusing on their strengths and building from there.
• Schools should be joyful places of learning.

Stay In Touch:

Twitter @mcdonald_kecia

IG @what_hi_see

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