- There's no space in my timetable for that activity
- My teachers won't be supportive of that plan
- I don't know enough about that exciting topic to teach it
- I've tried to change that but nobody will help me
- I don't have the resources to do that
- I'm scared to try that in case I fail
It was all so negative! I didn't want to let myself fall into a negative spiral, especially after being exposed to new ideas and energy at the Summit. Negative thinking can really drag you down. When I started school last week, I let myself take a good long look at how my lessons were going. Some lessons, mostly the ones where I was brave enough to try something new, were great. Others, where I was clinging to old activities and routines because of convenience and the fear factor, were not so great.
Those negative thoughts that I was having were all excuses not to make change! I was using the things I couldn't change as reason to give up entirely on my new ideas. Just because I can't change the culture of an entire school doesn't mean I should stop innovating in my own room. I was thinking in that way because I was afraid - to try something new, to stand out, to be brave.
There are so many things I want to try this term. Here are some that I am investigating:
- Rebooting digital citizenship with Common Sense Media's resources
- Starting up a Digital Leaders club with my Grade 2s and 3s
- Bring in pre-coding and coding from Grade 00 upwards
- Using Seesaw to introduce journaling to my students and teachers
There's an earworm-y song I'm sure you've heard called Waiting on the World to Change. There's a great line in it that is applicable to what I'm going through at the moment:
"It's hard to beat the system, when we're standing at a distance" - John Mayer, Waiting on the World to Change
When faced with aversity, it's the easy route to kick back and decide not to try and make change happen. I see this happen with my colleagues. It can feel like roadblocks are put up no matter which route you take and your ideas are blocked at every turn. Regarding other projects, I've heard:
- That won't work, we've tried it before
- It's not in the budget
- I don't have time to do that
- That's not how we do things here
- Maybe that can happen at X school, but not at our school
- Our staff won't buy into that
- Tell me more about this idea
- What would the first step be?
- What would the benefits be?
- Can you help me understand X?
- Why do you think this method is better?
- How can we make that work in our context?
On my way to making change happen. |
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