Change it, Right Now!

I think it is quite perfect that I am taking a class on change for grad school this semester, as my school is taking on a great amount of change in the next year. I find myself in a place where it seems that one or two small changes or assessments can't be enough. I see that we are embracing a billion different changes, but no one can truly articulate what they are and why we are doing them. They are supposed to be creating excellence in teaching and learning, but it isn't clear what should be important and why it all has to be done RIGHT NOW.

I am not exactly questioning these types of changes. As a newcomer to this school from a public school where change was not introduced but dictated, I am almost enjoying sitting and watching the perspectives awash around me. Some are excited, some are angry, some are indifferent, some are frightened. It is almost as if our change process has to go through stages, like those of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' stages of grief before we decide that we shall either accept or reject the changes put before us.

The difference, however, between this school is that through it all, I find a large cohort of us truly dedicated to the education of our students. We are not collecting a paycheck, we are not doing this because we have to, we are teachers, because we love our students. We teach them because seeing them learn gives us a greater joy than anything else we could do in our lives. We will ride the waves of change because we know that if we hold on, and put forth our best, that our children will be ok.

Change in education is a great wheel. Only when someone is truly willing to embrace a flat tire and try something new (hover board perhaps?), shall change truly be enacted.

I could learn to hover....