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 involves aides in the classroom. So 26 times

...