Why is innovating in education so hard!!!

The other night I happened upon a discussion thread in Twitter that included some of the young teachers I worked with in Peel. They are both outstanding Modern Learning educators and they have been doing some truly cutting edge things with amazing results. The thread of the conversation was very negative, declaring some schools just can't change, and expressed fatigue at always feeling on the defensive. Me being me, I launched into the conversation declaring I didn't believe there were schools out there that just couldn't change, and truly I don't. My two young teachers both responded saying yes but it is so hard to constantly feel you have to defend what you are doing. They talked about how the status quo sometimes looked good. I know these two young folks and they won't turn back, but I also understand how they are feeling.

There is perhaps no more conservative profession, with the exception of perhaps accountants, than educators. We are so risk adverse that investment firms were actively marketing educators in the 1990's because we were the most under-represented profession in the stock market. We like nice comfortable savings accounts and GICs, nothing too risky for us.

Consider what I have just written, the people responsible for educating the future leaders of society, the innovators, the solvers of the world's problems are the most conservative, risk adverse profession out there.

I have come to accept I am an innovator but not for the sake of innovation. If there was a way to do things more effectively for the students I served then I was willing to give it a try. Somehow I was fortunate enough to always surround myself with people who thought like me and as a Principal I fostered a culture of Yes long before I even knew what it was.

Given the information I shared in paragraph two you have to know it wasn't an easy journey. I had people walk into my school to see what we were doing, take one look, a look mind you, and walk right out without even waiting for an explanation. I have had Superintendent's call me to tell me what my teachers were doing wasn't quite supported by the Board and I have had to stand up for what I believed was the right thing to do. It is important to realize I didn't just dream up these innovations, like the young teachers I mentioned above, the innovations were well supported by research and we continued to modify our approaches based on what we learned through our implementations. At the end of the day it had to make a difference for the students we served and when we proved it did, suddenly others were jumping on the bandwagon. In the meantime there was lots of conflict, lots of need to defend what we were doing, and a need for me as the leader of my school to stand up and support my teachers.

I always find it interesting when a teacher says to me, "but they won't let me." I have often wondered, who is they??? If what you are doing is good for kids, if they are learning and able to demonstrate their learning at an exemplary level, who is going to challenge you??

The two teachers I have mentioned above are exemplary and I expect they will be outstanding formal leaders in the future, but for now they are pedagogical leaders blazing the trail towards Modern Learning and I suspect they are making lots of other educators feel uncomfortable. One of the teachers is in his second year of going grade-less and oddly enough the world has not come to an end. On the contrary people are reaching out to him from many different locales asking him to talk about his journey. The other young teacher is practicing the fundamentals of Modern Learning pedagogy in her classroom on a daily basis. At the beginning of the year one parent wanted his child removed from her class because he found her methods so unorthodox. Now, the same parent is trying to convince the Principal to have the teacher loop up to the next grade with her class including his child.

Nothing is more predictable than school and Modern Learning doesn't represent a reform but, as Sir Ken Robinson would say, it is a transformation. Classes don't look the same, they don't sound the same, the hierarchical structures are different and portfolios are replacing grades. What??????

Why are we doing it? Because it is right for kids. Hang in my young friends, transformation is never easy but when it is proving to make a difference for the children we have a passion for serving it is worth every minute of the struggle.

My Change.School promise - to start blogging again

I just finished the Change.School professional learning session and I am in mourning that it is over. To have the opportunity to interact with brilliant individuals and exchange ideas every week, three times a week, for 8 weeks, was just amazing. As the weeks wore on I realized I had lots of things to share from my own leadership journey and the things I have learned about change and implementation.

The Modern Learners movement is perhaps one of the biggest potential changes we have ever seen in education and understanding how leadership and change theory will impact the success of the implementation is critical. I just sent two videos, made by two of my schools almost 4 years ago, to one of my cohorts in Change.School 1. After I had sent them I watched the videos and I realized just how much my thinking, and the thinking of my two Principals featured in the videos, has changed. I just sent both Principals the challenge to watch the videos again and tell me what they would add, change, or say differently. I think that is what makes this work so exciting and so scary to many people. Our thinking isn't static. As we work to implement our creative and innovative ideas, we learn and our paths change. An implementation evolves, it doesn't mean we have changed focus, rather it means our thinking has grown.

Finally I think the big challenge that I can also contribute some thoughts too is the fact that the Modern Learner movement is not about some students, it is about all students. One of my mentors, Will Richardson, has some concerns about the growth mindset idea but for me it is a critical piece. If teachers are not approaching their work with a growth mindset, with a belief that all students can be creative, innovative and add to the learning conversation, then we have a major problem. Learning is about hope, it is about questions, it is about ideas, and it is often about challenging the status quo. If all educators don't possess these critical attributes then how can they support their students in cultivating theirs.

So, I am back to blogging. Thank you Change.School for re-invigorating my voice.