I read a blog post about the qualities of a modern teacher. The first quality listed was, “Choose to be vulnerable.” What does it mean to be a vulnerable teacher? Does it mean being weak or incapable? No, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. According to Dr. Brene Brown in her book, Daring Greatly, vulnerability is not weakness, it is our most accurate measure of courage; it is “basically uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure.”
It takes great courage to see yourself as a learner in your classroom, courage to step out of your comfort zone and explore new ideas, and great courage to fail your way to success. It is difficult in a school culture to develop the ethos that embraces creativity…because many teachers embrace perfection and feel that change is too risky. Asking teachers to try their hand at blended learning without a way out was our “great dare”; their response continues to be a demonstration of daring greatly.
It was difficult for me to imagine how frightening this change was going to be for the teachers. When I first presented the idea of blended learning I thought teachers and administrators would be as excited as I was to embrace this new idea. I quickly learned that trying something new is not that exciting when you are afraid you will fail. Teachers take a great deal of pride in the work they do and asking them to change that on the fly was frightening. However, these teachers are some of the most courageous people I know and they rose to the challenge. Although this process was not easy, it was one of great growth which comes only when you dare greatly.
Glancing back, I can see that providing a strong scaffolding of training and planning are integral parts of a successful transition. In fact, in our second year we are experiencing much success due in large part to the fact that we started talking about this change in culture for the past year. Holding many training session afforded teachers a series of small presentations of this big change. Teachers were able to work with each other and our consultants to puzzle out ideas about blended learning and how it might impact their specific methodology. In this way we were creating a mindset of growth and change which is essential to help teachers feel confident and empowered through the support they receive from administrators, teacher leaders, and each other.
I take much pride in the team approach we developed through this process. Granted, it was not an easy path, but a worthwhile one, nonetheless. Our team consists of administrators, coaches and teachers working together to map out each small change. When challenges crop up we embrace the opportunity for more growth. We call this “iterations of success”; test, learn, iterate, repeat. By encouraging a culture that is not about shame and blame we have been able to look at the “wrong turns” as opportunities. It was not easy to lean into these imperfections, in fact, it feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar, but creativity requires taking risks and risks are messy and come packed with imperfections. We have made exciting progress this year and our teachers are taking risks in curriculum design and lesson planning that would have been impossible without this cultural change.
Lisa Fusco is Director of Technology at the Moriah School
By Lisa Fusco
