Our Kids, Not My Kids

I had a meeting with my principal this week and we talked a bit about the two different mindsets that teachers can sometimes have... I'll call them the "my kids" and the "our kids" mindsets.  I think they can certainly be understood as being two extremes and that most teachers fall somewhere in the middle of the continuum.  But, I think there are some real benefits to understanding the two, and making a conscious choice as to which camp you are going to belong to. 

The "my kids" kind of classroom usually functions a little more autonomously from the other classrooms at the grade level and certainly at the school.  Possibly there is even some competition between rooms for test scores and who has to take the "tougher" kid that year.  Maybe the teacher feels a little bit like a independent contractor that needs to take all the responsibility for every aspect of their classroom and the learning of their kids, and really does not branch out much to either give or receive much help from others, except for the mandated help from an RSP or speech teacher.  The idea of being a buddy room with another classroom and helping out with things that are going on in that room might seem to be outside of the job description and undesirable with so much riding on one's own performance in one's own room with one's own kids.  When there is a problem with some kids that are not part of their classroom, the "my kids" teacher might choose to not deal with it justifying the inaction by saying that the kids are not theirs and that the other teacher should be the one dealing with the problem, after all those are there kids, not my kids... and so it goes.

The "our kids" classroom in one where the the mindset of a teacher is broader than just their own room.  They feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for all the students, not only in their classroom and at their grade level, but for all the students in the whole school.  Although they might not know all the names, they know the common expectation for all the kids and are active participants in meeting those goals.  The "our kids" teacher might be willing to voluntarily swap kids during a leveled reading or math time with another teacher, understanding the success of those kids in another classroom is their success as well.  They even might be willing to go to another teacher who has seen success in a certain area and ask them for advise on how they can improve their own practices, a step that might mean swallowing some pride.  But, when they are all "our kids", a step like that seems more like teamwork, rather than losing the "best teaching practices" competition.  Grade levels become more collaborative, and a teacher becomes a teacher to every student on campus working together to solve problems and shore up areas that need attention.  As the giving to each other goes up, the receiving goes up as well.  Both your problems and my problems become our problems and we'll all work together to solve them.

Which kind of classroom would you rather teach in?