Written by Today, my colleague and I passed two grade 11 students in the hallway who were extremely engaged in an intense and, in my opinion, random conversation on “the school system killing creativity”. It was one of those moments in my life when all I could think was, “Wow! They are talking about school outside the classroom walls… Amazing!”. I also had the reaction of, “what the heck are these kids talking about!”. I couldn’t help but stop and ask how this conversation came about as I have been teaching these students for the past six years and was slightly caught off guard that this was a topic of interest. They showed me this clip from YouTube by Richard Williams, a spoken word artist and speaker from St. Louis, Missouri (which I encourage you all to watch!).
What really struck me in this conversation was they have the exact same worry as I do as a teacher, the same challenge that I wrote about just two days ago (what are the chances!). If I make all these changes to my classroom that he is suggesting in the video, am I preparing students for post-secondary education? Is that not my job, to prepare them for what comes next? Where do we draw the line on what this “structure” looks like?
But then I have this little elf on my shoulder saying, “we need to progress as the world is progressing, it only makes sense.” Why would we not? Everyone else is. Should we not follow? Absolutely.
All of this to say, students care much more than we may realize. As a community of teachers, more of us need to care and make time to try new things, reflect on what we are doing each day, and step outside our comfort zone as a community of teachers. I have been a little insecure about my “essential question” and have been asking myself, “is it one that really matters?” This conversation brought me insane clarity. The kids also want to see this balance, so how can I make this happen?
@aleacock – what a great follow-up post! And pretty amazing timing given your previous one!
I’ve been inspired by a few blogs I’ve read in the days and now hours leading up to our 2nd F2F tomorrow, and I wanted to thank you for writing about this issue, because I think this concept of stepping outside of our comfort zone as educators is central and vitally linked to our ability to innovate and make positive change in our classrooms and schools.
This is what @ibrown discusses in her most recent post, so be sure to check that out if/when you can, as I think the ideas work well together. And, hopefully tomorrow you will get a chance to chat in person with each other!
I’ve been working on pushing past the comfort zone and into the growth zone myself, actually, both in terms of my own practice and that of my school as a whole (i.e. PD). I’d love to chat more about this tomorrow F2F if we are able! 🙂
@aleacock – what a great post! And, what wonderful timing indeed!
I’ve been truly inspired by a number of blog posts, including yours, that I have been reading over the past few days (and now hours) as we lead up to the 2nd F2F session.
So, thanks for writing this post! It actually made me think about small change innovation, which I read about in the most recent post from @ibrown – I actually think the concept you present is directly linked to small change innovation, so check out each other’s posts if/when it works. And, hopefully you’ll both be able to chat tomorrow F2F!
I’ve been working on moving through the comfort zone and into the growth zone myself, actually, both in terms of my own practice and that of my school as a whole (i.e. PD). I’d love to chat more about this tomorrow F2F if we are able! 🙂
Thank you so much, Elissa!
It’s honestly just so nice to know I’m not alone in my challenges. I’m eager to read the post you have shared so much so thank you!