Please Help with the Baggage
My family and I just arrived to Kobe, Japan, where my wife will be the Head of EAL at the Canadian Academy. We are all very excited, as well as anxious, about this big move. I have spent the past 25 years in China, of which 11 were in Hong Kong. My children were born and raised in Hong Kong. As a family who values building deep connections to people and cultures we don’t move very often; my wife has had long stints at two schools since we left the U.S., and this will be her third.
We are one of tens of thousands of international educator families that are moving to a new city, for a new job, excited about joining a school like yours. We are coming with decades of baggage that if not unpacked, may disrupt our healthy transition into our new home and position. My question to you is, will you help your Arrivers unpack their baggage? Will you take time to get to know them at a deep professional AND personal level? Will you help them identify the baggage that will help their colleagues and the baggage that may not be relevant?
The baggage I am referring to is all the learned habits, experiences, memories (good and bad) and skills we have collected over decades. A lot of this baggage has contributed to our success, but there is some baggage that will impede forming healthy and collaborative relationships with new colleagues. This negative baggage might be memories of past failures to collaborate with peers; or those times we were given hurtful feedback, disguised as an observation or evaluation; or even those times we stepped forward to help the team and our efforts weren’t appreciated
Moving to a new city, with a family, for a new role, to a different school, is a very cognitively and emotionally consuming experience, for my entire family. During this period of adjustment, we will be trying to figure things out, while at the same time trying to make new things work. The way we will make things work is by digging into our baggage to see if there is anything useful. If things work, then we will keep those habits and skills. If they don’t, well, hopefully there will be someone there to help us.
This special someone will understand that even though my wife is a dedicated professional eager to jump into her new role, she also has two children who have left their friends and family behind to start as a new student in unknown territory. This someone will empathize that at the end of a long workday, she will be coming home to a bunch of boxes and maybe even kids complaining that the internet isn’t working. This someone will understand that she needs time to get to know her department and build relationships before they start to tackle transformative teaching and learning goals. Ultimately, she will need someone with the time and passion to mentor her.
If you are one of these special ‘someone’ who is willing to make the time to mentor a new staff member or leader at your school, then I want to offer you my Leadership Mentoring Course as a resource to get started. It’s free, and I would also like to offer the opportunity to schedule a call with me at any time you have a question or need some help. If you are willing to invest your time to help someone transition successfully into your school, then I have all the time in the world to support you.
If you want a mentor and are not sure who to ask, let alone how to ask, then schedule a call with me and we can explore a variety of options. No one should have to navigate the complexities of a new school, let alone a new role, on their own. Ultimately, that only adds to the weight of the baggage already being carried.
