When you’re not at the helm, when is it your responsibility to rock the boat? Is it your responsibility to rock the boat?
My mentor has charged me and my co-worker - a teacher who, like me, was brought to the school by the previous principal in the hopes of inciting change - with being the voice of change by sharing our respective experiences. Off-and-on over the year, we have attempted to do so with our respective departments; however, our comments are often met with polite stares and smiles, or dismissive comments such as “that may have worked there, but it won’t work here.” We shared a few of these experiences with our mentor, but he insisted that we try harder.
This is the problem we are running into - our school is changing, but many of our teachers are not. I would say that we are facing a problem similar to the one Tim Fournier references when he speaks of ‘Upper Crust’ teachers in Michigan ignoring the critical issues in public education. Now, Fournier is speaking more of the ‘upper crust’ teachers not being advocates for their non-upper crust peers, and I am making more of an observation that many teachers in our school don’t see that our school is changing and that our status as a high-performing school will eventually change if we do not change.
I see what’s happening. My peer sees what is happening. Our mentor sees what’s happening. Our principal sees what’s happening. Still, it seems that the majority of our teachers would rather stick their heads in the sand and blame the students, previous teachers, the parents, or technology for the issues that are starting to crop up.
We have shared our experiences, and we have been repeatedly ignored. My moral compass tells me that the right thing is to continue to share until something happens, but I am tired. My peer is tired. We are trying one more thing - we are attempting to dig into some data to see if we can present findings to our peers that are steeped in data, but I don’t know what we will do beyond that.
When do you persist in rocking the boat, and when do you just ride it out until you get to the next port?
Josh,
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking about blogging next week about the same issue. In coaching we refer to coaching heavy versus coaching light. What you are trying to do is coaching light. When we do what we do and seek out a new follower here and there and then pick up momentum, we are coaching light. Coaches often have to start out coaching light in a new school. Coaching heavy can come into play when the administration tells a teacher that based on TKES, they must make a change and meet with a coach. It sound like it is time to c=start coaching heavy. Here is an article we share in the coaching endorsement - http://learningforward.org/docs/leading-teacher/dec10_teachersleading.pdf and I found this one as well - http://www.azed.gov/teacherprincipal-evaluation/files/2015/03/15-1451_gtl_wisecoachconsumer_az-summit_2015_fmt_edit.pdf
I hope they can give you some insights.
Tim
Josh-Being good can get in the way of becoming great! I often wonder if schools are successful because or in spite of the behaviors of the school. One thing I would challenge you to do is think about other ways to share your message. Remember, that doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
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