I’ve been silent for a while on this blog, busy working on my class wiki, the 21clc wiki, creating new blogs and wikis for several projects I have going, commenting on other blogs, trying to help other teachers and students take their ideas and conversations online.
If I’m honest with myself, I’ve also been silent because I’ve been a bit dismayed. I’m struggling to quell the urge to quit, to give-up, to slink back into my classroom and worry only about my students and my teaching inside room 19. The struggle to transform–to really transform my school is daunting. I’m trying, little by little, to make a difference. But, change is not going to come easy. It’s not going to come quickly. It’s not going to come without much sweat and toil and frustration. Change is hard. Falling back to what we know, what we’re comfortable with is easier, safer, and definitely less stressful.
Our 21clc discussed this idea yesterday afternoon. One teacher verbalized what we all were thinking: Why should teachers change? We’re going to ask them to do all this extra work, to change the way they’ve been teaching, to learn new skills that, at first, will probably make them uncomfortable. What will we offer them in return? Silence.
Then, this morning, I log on, scroll through my Google Reader, and find Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s post titled Why Change? I think she was eavesdropping on our conversation! Sheryl reminded me why I started this battle. She reminded me why I can’t quit.
You change because what you do for a living was never just a job- but more a mission. You change because you are willing to do whatever it takes to make a significant difference in the lives of the students you teach. You change because you care deeply about kids and you know that unless you personally own these new skills and literacies you will not be able to give them to your students.
Get inspired: read the rest of Sheryl’s post.
Image Source: “Crumpled Frustration.” Flickr photo by Aaron Jacobs
3 Comments
April 11, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I enjoyed your post. I have been on a whirlwind of learning Web 2.0, and I have been impatient with the slow pace of actual change in my district, but I know it is coming. I will have to bookmark your post as a reminder to not burn out along the way.
I enjoyed reading over the wiki you are creating as well. I am an English teacher in Bryant, Arkansas, and I love to see what other Arkansas teachers are doing on-line, and you seem to be doing an amazing amount.
April 11, 2009 at 2:43 pm
@Tara: I too love finding other Arkansas teachers! What classes and grade levels do you teach?
June 9, 2009 at 8:40 am
[...] to Comments I was perusing my blog this morning, reading through past posts, and I came across this one I wrote in January of this year. I had been silent on my blog for some time prior to that post, [...]