When I walked into her classroom the first time she didn't even look up from her

desk. She said, who are you? And so I put a big smile on my face and introduced

myself and she kind of caught herself and stood up a little straighter. She's

like, oh, I'm so sorry. She's like, I'm just having a long day.

Welcome to How To. I'm Courtney Martin. Think about the last time you met

someone new. How did it go? Did the conversation flow easily or was it one of

those rocky rides with awkward silences? Did you actually get to know them? Now,

if it's someone you may never see again, the stakes are pretty low. I mean, I

absolutely live for a sweet encounter with a stranger. But you know, it's

sweetness is rooted in the fact that it's brief and largely inconsequential. But

the stakes are so much higher if it's a new co-worker. Let alone dozens of new

co-workers. It was overwhelming the first few weeks of school just because I

have 26 classrooms this year. Meet Andrea. She's a former preschool teacher and

three years ago she transitioned from teaching kids to teaching other

teachers. My role is to really connect with the teachers so that I can kind of

give them coaching support and kind of engage them in reflective teaching

practices. It's the kind of mentorship that she really valued when she was a

teacher. But her district is so big that all of the classrooms she's

coaching are new to her this year. Plus, there are different schools. So she's in

a different building every single day of the week. Can you imagine how

difficult it is to get to know all the new faces and names? Much less their

strengths and challenges? I have 26 classrooms this year, which also

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