We are in a perfect storm, teacher shortages, pressure to implement policy after policy with limp support, increased global demands to do more, to be more, students are experiencing anxiety and depression and exponential rates, and teachers often feel helpless and ill-equipped. They are whipped from every angle and somehow still have the stamina to keep turning up every day, for the best reason, the only reason, their students.
It is in these times I think back to one of my most inspirational lecturers, he basically said despite everything going on around you, shut the classroom door and do what you know works. This advice has fared me well as a teacher, Assistant Principal and Principal. Those brave and crazy teachers walk confidently into the eye of the storm and create their own solutions regardless of what is happening around them.
Think of the craziest things you do to make teaching and learning happen despite, the sleet, the wind the rain, the thunder. In a group text of teachers, one teacher asks, “Kim why were you a giraffe today, I saw you on FB?” It is funny that the question was not” Why were you dressed up as a giraffe today? A perfectly normal question between a group of teachers, but to anyone else, they would think they were all mad. Her answer “We were learning about jungle animals, and I wanted to motivate my students”
What are some of the crazy things you have done, to keep teaching and learning alive and thriving despite the storm? Are you one of the crazy ones who think they can change the world? Do you know those who think they can change the world… often do?
And while this is an oldie… it inspires me every time I watch it. 1 minute of inspiration for you.
I have seen this ad for apple many times but each time I do, it makes me think about how innovation comes from struggle, creativity comes for thinking without constraint.
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