"I get to be on a team!"

My daughter, Reagan, is pretty introverted. She's always been content to be by herself working on something that interests her. We struggled for years to find her an activity or sport that she enjoyed and got her out of her bedroom. A few years ago she started competitively swimming and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, that didn't do a lot to expand her social skills. There's not a lot of talking in swimming and she doesn't personally know most of the other kids on her team since they don't live close to one another or go to school together. Reagan decided (after a little arm twisting) to run cross country at the middle school this year. She figured that the extra running would help her in swim and improve her overall endurance. This week they started to practice and when I picked her up on Monday, she was pretty excited. Her very first words when she saw me were, "I get to be on a team!" It only took her one day to recognize how important teams and encouragement within groups can be. She was hooked. 

High school teachers can sometimes be like introverted teenagers. We have a bad habit of hiding within the four walls of our classrooms. We feel that we control that space or can hide within it if we know that something may be wrong. We are not nearly as forced to collaborate as elementary or middle grades teachers are. But there is power in having a team. When you can give and receive help from others that work with similar students, you get that same feeling of encouragement that my daughter got this week. Being a member of a team requires that you give and receive support to the other members, and both of those actions trigger the chemical oxytocin in your brain. Researchers talk a lot about dopamine with kids and engaging them, but we probably should be talking just as much about oxytocin with teachers. It's the chemical that makes us feel loved, safe, valued, and wanted among a group. So if you're already hiding within the four walls of your room this year...GET OUT! Engage your teacher team and contribute to it.