This lovely woman came up to me during my session the other day, and talked about how she just signed up for Twitter. She then shared, that she always gets excited for these days, but then struggles because she realizes how far behind she is of other people in the classroom.
My response?
I shared with her that just by signing up for Twitter and creating her own account, she had actually moved ahead of others in the same room that had been on Twitter for a long time, but weren’t necessarily trying anything new on this day. Not that there weren’t opportunities, but that they seemingly felt they may have “arrived”.
When she said this, she reminded me of a tweet I recently saw where an educator said that a recent PD she attended was great for other teachers, but it was all stuff that she had already knew. It bothered me because do not have any responsibility for our own learning, or is just what we are waiting to be taught?
I was reminded of the following quote from Stephen Downes:
The other thing I shared this day, that I would be a lot more comfortable hiring a teacher that may have struggles but is open to learning and growing, as opposed to a teacher that may see themselves as an “expert”, but doesn’t need to grow any longer. Eventually, the teacher who needs to grow, but is willing to do just that, will actually surpass the other. But the other part is that they are a learner, and are trying to understand not only what they are learning, but how they are learning.
The moment we feel we have “arrived”, is the moment we might as well pack it in and call it career. As education develops and we know more about learning, we will constantly be reaching for a target that is seemingly, and beautifully, just out of our reach.
We can always get better, so we should.
from Connected Principals http://ift.tt/1TC6QJd
