Sunday, April 23, 2017

Waiting on the World to Change - Overcoming Negativity

After hitting up the CT EdTechTeam Summit and meeting all of the fantastic educators out there, I have begun to analyse my own practice a bit more. My first reaction when faced with all the cool stories about what others were doing in their schools was a bit negative, to be honest. I was thinking things like:
  • 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:
All of these things are fantastic ideas! They fill up my brain with a happy buzz and would be, without a doubt, hugely beneficial to my students. Instead of being overwhelmed with doubt about whether they could happen and if I have the time and resources and if my teachers will be supportive and if my students are capable and... if, if if!

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
It may be that projects and new ideas are flawed. It's good to have criticism of an idea, but very often criticism and not making change is the easy option. It's easy to pick on the flaws of a proposal and difficult to make it happen. But the benefits of making a good change happen far outweigh the negatives. Instead of lettting those negative thoughts get you, try changing it up:
  • 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?
I, for one, am not going to let my own negative thinking undermine my plans. I can make change happen in my own sphere of influence, no matter what size that may be. I can improve my own practice by bringing in new ideas. Even if they don't go exactly as planned, my students and I will both learn enormously. Isn't learning the whole point of school?

On my way to making change happen.

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