Secret Agent-Of-Change Man

Think about how many times you have heard people say things like the following

• Change is difficult to accept.
• You need to get out of your comfort zone.
• If more people would spend less effort staying in the same place, we would see great things.
• "Status quo" is a four letter word.
• "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein

Now answer this: who are the people saying these things, or when do we hear these things? Likely it's the people who are promoting change - and their motivations, whatever they may be, are almost certainly seen as suspect by the people who being asked - or forced - to change.


The start of a new school year usually carries with it some sort of initiative or mandate to change something within the district. No Child Left Behind certainly has a major impact upon schools and school districts. Missed benchmarks and uncompleted goals force educators to figure out a way to improve student learning - in this case, raise test scores. Other initiatives that school districts try to implement to better student learning come in all shapes and forms. The assumption is that something has gone wrong, or needs improving - change to the rescue.


I recently spent three days in Minneapolis attending the Solution Tree conference on implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). I had planned to blog about this experience right after the conference, but upon reflecting upon the speakers' messages and reviewing the materials that I took from the conference, I knew I needed more time to digest things. There was one clear and common idea that ran throughout the conference: change is not an easy thing. PLC's require everyone in your "community" to communicate closely, work together often and buy into the program, whatever it may be: developing common assessments, creating an inclusive curriculum, specialized programs designed to raise student achievement, student success initiatives, etc.


Read that last sentence again - I've colored the text to set it off. Are these the sort of things that a motivated teacher would pass up? No. They all sound like they are great things that are aimed at improving student learning. So why would anyone resist?


Change. Change is coming. Change is on the way. Change what you are doing. Change your broad vision. Change your thinking.


There's that damn C word again. Most teachers are the master of their domain - the classroom. Sure we get visited by an administrator every now and again to make sure that there is quality instruction going on, and we create our yearly professional development goals to satisfy the community that we are working to improve every year. We are like cats - creatures of habit (and I suppose you could create a "coughing up a hairball" metaphor somewhere, but perhaps a later blog will do this) who don't like changes in their environment.


So, how did your school year start off? Was there an influx of change that demanded a rethinking of what you do (see my good friend and colleague's blog Cathy O's Observations) or are you the fundamentalist who is railing against change because it's cramping your style and your teaching? Or are you somewhere in between?


And ask yourself: Are you an agent of change?

Image credit: "Boris Badenov," Rocky and Bullwinkle, 1960, Jay Ward Productions