Last week I attended an AP Conference for experienced World History teachers. The instructor was excellent and I was impressed with the way he organizes his classes and the types of assignments he uses with his students. Fortunately, my colleague was also in attendance and we were both inspired to radically shift our classes this fall to integrate what we had learned.
I am always energized when I discover better ways to get things done. In this case, I feel like the changes will really enable my students to excel at a much higher level while providing them a firm foundation for success. I also love when I can effectively collaborate with like-minded professionals. I love growth and this was a great growing experience.
At the same time, I was a little surprised that some of the attendees did not share my perspective, they liked what they did and could not see the benefit of changing.
We all know that improvements only come through change--however; change can be very uncomfortable and time consuming. I can't speak for the other attendees and their reasons why they didn't see the advantages to what we had been taught, but I am glad to have been given a different (and in the long run I think better) perspective on the class.
The redesign of the course will be time consuming, but it will make me a more effective teacher and in the long run help prepare my students better, which is the real goal.
How willing to embrace change at work?