Jennifer: The Field of Change

When I was growing up, my parents used to tell me that I never fully appreciated what was happening at the present moment because I was always too busy making future plans. The Aesop fable about the prepared ant and the lazy grasshopper had probably traumatized me to some extreme, and I strongly believed that the more I planned, the less uncertainty would come my way (talk about an unlikely candidate for a career in special education!).

The second I entered this field, all my preconceptions about the wisdom behind solid scheduling and relying on daily plans leapt right out the window. My days were filled with multiple unscheduled visitors, single-student behaviors that served as intermissions for the whole class, and lesson plans that worked SO MUCH BETTER in my head than in practice. I realized that if I didn’t learn how to be flexible and accept constant change, I was going to end up another statistic in the “education career overturn” bracket.

My new daily plan was to take a deep breath, laugh it off, pick up the pieces, and move on. I began looking forward to “teachable moments” on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. After two years, I felt on top of my game. It was like I could read my kids and I could count on what they would respond to. I had great relationships with their families, and my support and friendships on campus were ideal. I had no clue that my “go-with-the-flow” perspective would soon be put to the test.

A week before this school year began, I changed jobs. It was a quick and unanticipated change, literally a split decision that needed to be made because an opportunity presented itself and I knew I had to jump on it. It was like someone snapped their fingers and suddenly there I was in a new room with new students, new grades and curriculum, and a whole new set of needs. Suddenly I was the new kid.

I say “kid” because after all the emotions I’ve gone through these past couple weeks I am convinced that we never really do grow up all the way. I was excited during the day and had nightmares of oversleeping at night. I looked for a familiar face to sit with at the “welcome back” luncheon and I scrambled to keep up with training that I was convinced everyone else had gone through three times already.

No matter how “on top of it” I have felt before, this year I have to learn the ropes all over again. There are new procedures, IEP programs, and inclusion rules. I have to make new friends with general ed. teachers and gain the trust of my colleagues, students, and their families all over again. Luckily, everyone I work with has been amazing and oh-so-helpful, but I know there will be bumps in the road…it’s just the nature of the beast.

Change is challenging, but it is good. This is a lesson that will be re-learned in various contexts, so we might as well embrace it. I don’t feel we should ever get too comfortable in this field. The feeling of security had allowed me to focus on my class activities, but I had forgotten what it was like to advocate for myself in addition to my students. I had also forgotten what it was like to meet a class full of people for the first time and nervously hope that they all like me.

If we all jumped into the unknown once in a while, we might learn something new about our capabilities in the classroom. If we let our students see us go through changes in our lives, maybe it would allow them to open up more so we could learn something new about their capabilities as well.

Oh, and incidentally, even adamantly prepared ants have to be capable of change. If they weren’t able to adjust their stride length to correctly calculate their distance to food, they’d never find their way back home. I’m not saying I suddenly side with the grasshopper—laziness is the last thing we need in our schools. I’m just saying that if Aesop had known that, his story may have ended with a slightly different moral.


 

Comments

[Jennifer]

Ohhh Susie! I need to venture back to these posts more often! Thanks so much for your networking help and support, I really appreciate it. I really want to do an in-depth view into what our format of classroom is like...it is simply amazing...and I enjoy meeting more and more people in this field. Thank you again!

[Anna (CEC Staff)]

Susie, we're glad you enjoyed Jennifer's post on Conductive Education. Thanks to you and Andrew for sharing it with a wider audience.

[Susie Mallett]

Jennifer,

I loved reading your wonderfully refreshing account of Conductive Education.

I have only just found this posting after Google alerted me to it.

I am a British conductor living and working in Germany:
http://www.susie-mallett.org
and I am just as enthusiastic about Conductive Education as you appear to be.

I forwarded the google alert to Andrew Sutton because I thought he might enjoy it too and he did. He wrote about it on his blog "Conductive World".

I thought you might like to know so you can read what he wrote:

http://www.conductive-world.info/2010/03/all-change.html

Susie Mallett

[James L Lowe]

Thank you Jennifer for your keen insite on what it takes to move forward, reaching for the price which we as teachers deem excellent, doing what we can is invaluable to our nations youth. I hope to experience first hand the same challenges that you have described in Cali.here in Philly. I will take what I evaluated as your advise, say in the present, be fluid and don't sweat the small stuff. Thanks...God bless.

[Oscar L. Byrd II]

I enjoyed your post. One of the things I grew up with was confusion created change, but change only could happen when a glitch got in the system and someone pressed the reset button. At the end of last school year, my school underwent administrative changes. At first the thought for change seemed acceptable but turned out to be a bad idea. The new administration came in with drastic program changes and created an environment that did not facilitate the entire special education population. This change did not settle well with the majority.

One of the things that I continue to do is encourage myself that not all change is satisfies everyone, and that no matter what the situations are remain firm in my beliefs and continue to seek the good in every situation.

[Justin Phillips]

Thanks for sharing your experience Jennifer. Education is an ever-changing field and no matter how "prepared" you are for the future, there are always those little twists in the road that seem to appear out of nowhere. Special education seems to be changing at a higher rate than other areas in education. We recently switched to a new IEP creating program and the learning curve is starting to take a toll on everyone. For me, the little kinks always seem to help keep me grounded and focused on why I actually went into this field. It's all about the kids. It seems if I stay focused on that everything else takes care of itself.

[Marni Zito]

I really enjoyed reading your posting. It really hit home with me. When I first became a teacher only four years ago I was in a regular education classroom. I made friends, and gained respect from parents and colleagues. I was excited to come back the following year in the same class as the year came to an end I was called into the principal's office and was told I was being moved to the MD class. I was scared, I did not want to change, but as you stated in your posting all worked out well and I started fresh and worked though my fears. I have been in the MD classroom for three years now and consider myself very lucky to have been given this opportunity.

[Holly Patenaude]

I just read your profile, and have an "addition" to my comment . . .

In addition, I am taking a class on introducing students to the 21st Century Learning, and have had great luck integrating technology into my direct instruction with middle school students in Math and Language Arts. I have integrated blogging into my classes, and am working on a website and other platforms for student presentations.

[Holly Patenaude]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Last year I left the private sector and ventured back into the public school system, a huge change from small scale, to a much larger scale. The transition was huge, for students, staff, and little ol' me. I now had my own caseload, and a classroom of students who had undergone a lot of changes in one year, a an unfamiliar staff. It was up to me to sink or swim, and I chose to swim.

I have remind myself often that change is okay, and remind my students that change is not the end of the world, it helps us grow. It is hard to be the newbie, but I have found the staff that I work with so incredibly supportive. It helps that I am willing to ask the questions, and search out the answers.

As you say "If we all jump into the unknown once in a while . . . " the possibilities are endless :)