When the seeds start to sprout

When a niggle grows in you that what you have been trying to do in leading your staff through Curriculum innovation has either been, all for nothing, or slow and painful, it can cause a person to have a crisis of faith in themselves.  It often causes you to doubt your actions up until that point, ponder every decision made again and again, and even get you questioning whether you are cut out for the job/portfolio that you have.

It is too easy to then throw the baby out with the bath water and start all again, or just give up.  You have to be really quite strong willed and, in a way, a little arrogant, to back yourself and what you are trying to achieve.  Add that to a constructive, supportive, and encouraging group of staff around you (with the odd barrier builder for good measure) and you may just be able to see through the fog to the sun waiting above.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been so encouraged with the openness in which the staff I work with have been offering little gems into the curriculum discussions, and opening themselves up for potentially - a loss of subject protection, a collaborated approach to planning, courses that allow students to choose and move more freely, and quality over quantity of credits offered.

For some schools, this is old news, and they are on to their 5th, 6th, 7th year of trial and error.  For our school, it is a giant step towards creating more flexible, integrated, and relevant learning experiences for our students.

The seeds that we started to sow are starting to sprout, with every day, new ideas being discussed throughout meetings, departments, staffroom conversations, blogs and emails, that relate directly to themes on future-focused/21st C Teaching and Learning.  Teachers are emailing me ideas on how they would like to adapt their curriculum, change up their units, see the connections with other subjects, researching Best Practice in other schools.  Wow!!!!

It has been a long wait, and I have learnt so much about leading change, and whether I have actually impacted staff is still up for debate.  But I am a part of a change that is occurring, and the best thing is - it is all about the learner being at the heart of all of our discussions and thoughts.  What a cool time to be teaching, leading, learning, and changing with education in NZ.