Change is hard. Change is painful. Change is frustrating. Change takes time. Blah Blah Blah...You have heard it all before. We humans get attached to things. We don't like to let go. In many ways this serves us well, especially when we are married with young children. At times my children are very lucky that I am so attached to them, but I digress...
Teachers can get attached to certain technologies, certain email clients, certain ways of word processing. Moving from one application to another application can be a very painful process that involves a fair amount of anxiety, fear and whining. At the rate that the world is moving, switching technologies is happening more and more often.
We have to learn to let go. We have to learn to trust in the skills we have and know that they will transfer. We need to trust our ability to adapt and change, not fear it. We need to let go, breath and move on, reassess and potentially move on again. When the tide is coming in it is better to swim with it than to fight it. We do better to take a deep breath and enjoy the ride than to drown.
Image source: Big Wave from Tom Plunkett's Photostream on Flickr
6 comments:
Couldn´t agree more! Changes are happening, there's no denying it, so rather than being left behind it's best to go slowly (if you need to) but to go nonetheless. I particularly like Dean Groom's view on the matter:"I’m advocating very simple tools and services – no where near the levels of skill needed to podcast or use an IWB. Newcomers need things they can learn in 10 minutes or less, then go and try for 10-20 minutes. It’s the gamer approach to learning. Easy entry, easy win then level up and try again."
I understand and can appreciate where you're coming from. The tools I fall back on make my job go smoother, easier, faster. That is where reluctance can come in. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. There are times when I am running a bit faster than is comfortable. At those times I don't read the blogs in my reader as thoroughly as they deserve; I don't check out Twitter posts, and I don't participate in the other online communication opportunities that can seem almost endless in scope and availability. I have learned so much in the past year and can recognize that the change you speak of has been a critical part of my development as a teacher, blogger, and PLN memeber. It is always valuable to pursue that change and growth.
So all in all, I guess I'll cut myself some slack here and recognize that when the pace is more manageable, I will jump back into the conversations around me. Thanks for the thoughtful post. It has given me a moment of reflection in my otherwise hectic life.
That's the thing with teaching, you always have to change something. It's important to be flexible and make those adjustments. I like my routines, but I also like changes (depending on what they are). I had to change rooms this year and, at first, I didn't like it. That was mainly due to the fact that I had to move a lot of stuff. Now that things are in place, I'm really liking my room bettter than before. Embrace the change, whatever it may be, because it may very well help in the end.
I totally agree. The hardest part of change is the feel of uncomfort. However change will never come if we do not see obstacles as an opportunities to learn rather than roadblocks.
Change is a wonderful thing. Sometimes i think it does not happen fast enough. The more you change, the more experiences you have. The more experiences you have, the more you are able to handle something knew. So you become more open to change.
ask them 'what have been the losses suffered because of technology in education' - for yourself, your students, your school. Get them to identify them; then you can start dealing with them.
Post a Comment