FWCD Faculty and Staff Class of 2023: And Other Points of Pride

As we share our annual Points of Pride this January, I want to focus on one particular source of pride for me: FWCD’s faculty and staff Class of 2023. As individuals bringing their gifts to FWCD, they give me great pride in our leadership team’s hiring abilities and pride in having these faculty and staff members as a part of our community. In this case, though, I wanted to share what our newest faculty and staff have to say about the School community they have just joined.  

My source of information is my annual start of second-semester one-on-ones with the newest members of our community. I meet individually with each of our recent arrivals. My agenda is to check in on two topics, both related to the School’s responsibilities with new community members. First, I ask how the reality of FWCD compares with the impressions we established in the interview process. Second, I want to know how we have done “onboarding” each of them. As I say in each of the meetings each year, this is a conversation not so much about you (new faculty member) but rather about us, the School. I am asking, “How have WE done as a school helping you acclimate and feel welcomed into the FWCD community?”

I am proud of both the work our community does in welcoming new team members and the accolades the School has earned from its newest 2023 employee community members. 

For example, these are some answers to “How have we done?” (reading from my notes in the meetings ... not putting quotation marks because my version is not a transcription)

Overboard with nice (helpful) people. I love that students are not allowed to have phones in class. 

It’s been “phenomenal.” I feel invested in. l love the high expectations. I love having gone from 150 students to 60. 

The Upper School has done “awesome.” My initial great impressions from the dinner out with potential colleagues as a candidate last spring have been realized.

My Department Chair helped me make “calibration” adjustments. I was coming from teaching college, and I was asking too much for the first quarter. Kids and colleagues both were great about working with me to help me improve.

One “rookie” told the story of particularly liking senior advisees, working on one of those advisee’s study skills and organization, hoping to make a difference for the student as they go to college. 

Another question I ask is, “What do you tell your teacher friends about being at FWCD?” So often, our newest team members have left valued colleagues and good school situations.

Some responses this year included:

Loving the schedule, the class size, and the free lunch.

Another shared that we had the longest interview ever … over the course of a full day and dinner. I would say we find that extended exposure our candidates have to us (and we have to them) is invaluable. She also would share with former colleagues how amazing our culture is and loving the value we place on “connecting” with students.

So often, our newest faculty members speak of how much they are struck by how often FWCD students leave the class saying, “Thank you.” We get used to that routine after a few years, as with so many of the wondrous things about being FWCD faculty and staff. Not every school has so many of its students, at all different ages, regularly thanking their teachers for class. It is valuable to see the School through the eyes of those for whom so many of our strengths are new.  

We also benefit from the newest faculty members’ constructively critical feedback …. Like this year’s tech-savvy newcomer who said, speaking of some of our technology, that have a few places where we might be a little more 20th than 21st century. The comment was poignant and relevant, and the new team member had not only the criticism but also the ideas on how to help improve. Another had many sources of gratitude and a constructive comment about how we casually use some foreign holidays for campus celebrations without really teaching about what those holidays mean in the foreign culture. 

Again, in the category of valuable perspective that us five and 10-year and more veterans benefit from, one new teacher reported in this conversation that, thanks to her schedule, her students and her colleagues, she no longer felt burned out.

The value of these conversations to us as hirers and welcomers is immense. I wish I could have these one-on-ones with each of our new students and their families.