There are some tried and true things that work no matter the decade we live in. Simply be in the moment, care about others, make them feel wanted, and give everyone a chance to have a voice. These never go away.
However, education is loaded with example after example of educators saying, “We used to do it this way or we did this 15 years ago.” Often times it is hard to move away from something we have always done.
The key question is, “What can I do to make this better?”
Many times when educators are challenged to rethink how they teach certain things they become quite offended and think that others think their stuff is crap. I often work to help them shift their mind to remember that what they have is good, but how do we change the angle of learning to meet the current needs of standards, students, and expectations.
We don’t have to scrap everything. Rather, admit that nothing is perfect. Everything we do must be tweaked. What worked for me when I started teaching does not work today. I am a different person. I have different life experiences. I must adapt as I learn and grow.
So should you!
The truth is that as culture and people evolve, grow, and change so do our priorities. For example, it used to be true that how educated you were was how much info you had crammed in your head. This is no longer as important today where you need to be able to use rapid pattern recognition in all your searches to find what you need on your devices. This is just one example to show how things have changed culturally.
Think about this: our brains have changed and adapted to drive a car, then changed to be able to dance to music, and now we are adapting to deal with information overload.
Has your classroom changed to meet the cultural needs of society today?
Change can be scary, but it is what we are built for! This is something I have learned and will continue to learn and adapt as I challenge my own thinking.
At the end of the day, don’t use your energy and decision making power to do things that don’t actually get the job done. Take this image posted above. There was more work to find paper and marker to write the message compared to simply putting the cup in the dishwasher.
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