*This piece was written in August 2016 during back to school week. I find it relevant now as I head back to work for the 2017-2018 school year tomorrow*
In my pocket: a list of landmarks in Harlem
We scavenged, we hunted, and we found what we were looking for.
This week was PD week at school. For those non teachers, PD means professional development. It is when we get together as a staff without students in the building. We participate in ice breakers, give hugs to all our old friends, get to know new teachers. We sit through sessions on technology, the personnel handbook, and receive our daily schedule. I sometimes lead sessions and this year is was a dissection of a guided reading lesson. Teachers prepare their rooms for a new group of kids who will enter into the building this coming week.
The whole week was about preparing and learning. I also help run a committee at our school that is all about promoting school community, staff unity and morale, and school culture. We planned and hosted a scavenger hunt of our Harlem neighborhood this year.
It was a very rainy Thursday. The school had gotten us all matching shirts and we told everyone to wear comfortable shoes. As I slipped into my t-shirt and flip flops that morning, I checked the weather app and it said sporadic showers throughout the day. I crossed my fingers that it would be clear out by 2 o’clock and went about my day. I spent a few hours with my committee perfecting the teams, checking our list over and over, copying and counting everything to make sure we were ready. It was 1:55 and our committee shakily walked into the library where the staff was waiting, not knowing what the reactions would be.
As my mouth opened to talk, so did the sky. Huge rain drops began pelting the window air conditioner units and as other people’s faces dropped, we tried to widen our smiles. We explained the task of joining your team and heading out into Harlem to reach different locations where you would then take a selfie and text it to us (the judges). We talked about bonus points and bringing back brochures and business cards. Sometimes it was hard to continue because a large portion of the group looked at us like we were crazy to be sending them out into the streets in the rain. At times it sounded as if the tropical storm expected next week had blown in a few days too early. I didn’t exactly know what to say when people asked, “What if it is still pouring at 2:30 when we begin?” I pointed to someone’s umbrella as I thought to myself, How can I make people go out into the rain to search for locations if I wouldn’t want to go out in this weather either? I thought about all the bulletin board paper that needed to get hung up, the offices that still needed organizing, copies to be made, rugs to be vacuumed, pencils to be sharpened, trips to Staples that still had to be taken. I thought about my own boxes of materials still shoved into a closet that hadn’t seen the light of day since June.
I held the list in front of me with 32 locations on it. Maya Angelou’s brownstone, the Jazz Museum, the National Black Theater, The West Harlem Piers, the Harlem YMCA. All these places that we wanted people to find. These places that would help our staff have a better understanding of the neighborhood we call home for 7, 8, sometimes 11 hours a day. I asked myself, If it is pouring out and there is work to be done, why dothey need to spend hours outside finding these places?
But as I began to lose hope, a staff member, Ted, shouted out, “I’ll buy a drink at happy hour for my team if we win!” Note: the event was ending with a staff happy hour. He said this with a genuine smile and I looked at him with thankful eyes. Two other staff members got up and shouted the same thing. And as one teacher, Raquel, heard that she was on Ted’s team, she ran up screaming and hugging him as if she had gotten called to the stage on The Price is Right. Everyone laughed and clapped. From then on, as teams were announced, clapping and cheering ensued. Some people slipped out the door and who could blame them? But for the most part, people became eager to find their team. Ted and Raquel didn’t realize it, and maybe I didn’t either at the time, but they had just found the first thing on the scavenger hunt list. It was in invisible ink between the Apollo and the State Building typed out on our list.
They had just found enthusiasm.
Our committee of six pulled out pens and pencils and scribbled and switched and moved people around to form teams of whoever was left to participate. One staff member who didn’t think she could come came running down the hall five minutes after we began and said she wanted to join in. We very happily added her to a team. A team of two and a team of three went off and somehow created a team of five. Another team of three lost two members halfway through because they had to go pick up their kids and came back as a team of just one. Low and behold, we had already checked off the second thing on our list. It was nestled between Lasker Rink and the Duck Pond at Morningside Park.
We had found flexibility.
It was something our committee didn’t even realize we were hunting for until we needed to switch things up last minute and go with the flow when people made their own teams and dropped off of teams before and during the event.
At 2:30, our phones began to ping as teams took selfies to signal that they began the event. We rushed to the restaurant so we could sit and start tallying up the scores. As we raced through the rain, we kept checking our phones and laughing and shouting to each other about the photos we were receiving. We got to the restaurant and, all too loudly, took over a large booth and frantically scribbled to keep score. We hooted and hollered and we shared photos that the teams were sending us. As they texted us photos, we would write back with messages like keep up the great work and what a creative photo, you get extra points! And as those messages were received by the teams, the photos began to change. They got more creative, they got funnier. The teams seemed to be getting to places faster and faster. We had found the next thing on our hunt list.
Hidden somewhere within the lines, we checked off encouragement.
We laughed louder and louder and after a few hours when teams clambered into the restaurant we would cheer for them and clap and wonder if/when the restaurant would kick us out for being too raucous. Team members came in soaking wet and with huge smiles on their faces. They headed downstairs to the happy hour and we continued to tally up scores and discuss winners.
It was clear that our staff had found the most important bonus items concealed within our list: playfulness, fun, and optimism.
They had run out into the rain and decided to give it their all. And as they gave it their all, we gave it our all and the cycle continued. By the time the event was over, people were asking us about the next culture event and giving suggestions on a new scavenger hunt. They were sharing information about locations they discovered and talking about places they wanted to return to, maybe with students, but definitely with new friends. Turns out that by the third time a team went into the Harlem YMCA to collect a brochure, the front desk members were asking about us. They wanted to know about our school and why we were running around in matching shirts asking for brochures.
We found something that even we didn’t realize we were looking for, community spirit.
We spoke to members of all teams to expose the nitty gritty of how they went about things. We found out which teams had clear leaders, which teams made a plan before going and who went with the flow. Turns out that one team spent half an hour strategizing before they left the building and then took an Uber around from place to place. Another team collected as many brochures as they possibly could to ensure to most number of points (they got bonus points for brochures and business cards). And still another team added in videos to try to gain creativity points.
And, yet again, something was checked off of our list, something we didn’t know would rear it’s head during this event, individuality.
Our Scavenger Hunt was designed to have staff members get to know each other and get to know Harlem. The locations and point values were carefully considered. The teams were deliberate. But as our staff scurried around the neighborhood and our smiles grew and spirits opened up, we checked off the REAL things we were hunting for. Knowing where the Harriet Tubman statue is will be helpful this year but bringing enthusiasm, flexibility, encouragement, playfulness, fun, optimism, community spirit and individuality into your classroom, into your job, and into your life will carry you much further.
As a staff, we scavenged, we hunted, and, I believe, we found what we were looking for.
