Learning to Change

I certainly accept the themes of the video. In fact, I think we have an even greater opportunity to impact our students and our world since we also have the message of Jesus Christ. However, I recognize that there are many challenges in making this vision a reality. Here are some very practical issues:

• It seems as if these changes need to be implemented quickly, but our schools and teachers, even if they fully embrace change, are not necessarily prepared to change this quickly. I know that for me personally, even though I am regularly utilize technology, a full systemic change is still difficult within my classroom. I MUST be intentional in promoting and modeling this type of change.
• We face the challenge of the skills being mentioned in this video as being ones which are not measured by any standardized test. Our parents, schools boards, and society as a whole has been trained to rank education by a number. If our standardized test scores are at an 87% composite this year but were at 82% last year, most people think our school is 5% better this year. Our society believes certain numbers equals success, probably because evaluation is much easier with simple numbers rather than complex multi-faceted assessments. Somehow we must communicate the essential nature of these skills as a preparation for our students for THEIR future, regardless of whether the skills appear on some high-stakes test. I would love to hear some new ideas on how we all might more effectively do this.

I would be very interested in hearing and reading other thoughts about this video. Feel free to share your comments as a response to this post. Let the discussion begin!