Kindest regards,
Bev Ogilvie,
District Counsellor
Burnaby Schools

I find Ira Socol to be an immensely thought-provoking educator and writer. His post regarding Changing Pedagogy and Teacher Identity http://www.earlylearning.prn.bc.ca/?p=2614 made me think.

I’m not a teacher, obviously. I do, however, have quite a lot of experience with change. Personal change. I know how difficult it is to change fundamental, ingrained beliefs about children, how they’re raised, how we relate to them, etc…

As a parent, I have to question everything that I do, in order to try to raise my children as whole and healthy human beings. Perhaps I was more “damaged” or had poorer role models growing up than most – that’s possible. But I KNOW how hard it is to change. So many of my “automatic” actions, assumptions and responses weren’t accomplishing what I WANTED or INTENDED with my children.

I believe in myself, in my good intentions, in my love for my children, in my intelligence, in my passion for being the best parent possible. Actually, in being the best PERSON possible – to be kind, compassionate, caring, conscious, open, respectful.

AND I know that only when I let go of my clutching need to be right, or to be seen as an expert, or to be acknowledged as “knowledgable” or a “good” parent – only then am I able to embrace feedback from others, particularly from my children, or to value my “failures” as learning/growth opportunities.

I have grown immensely over the last few years. Sometimes life has forced me to. Sometimes it was my choice and my ideals that inspired me to. But I also know that I still have much more to learn. I’m by no means consistent. Only through my children’s feedback do I see the places where I slip back. Or where I still have work to do. Being RESPONSIVE is more important to me than being EXPERT.

I’ve had to face (somewhat unwillingly) that I’ll always be imperfect and always have more to work on and that I’ll always slip back into old patterns or get overwhelmed at times. But that doesn’t feel like a bad thing to me anymore – it’s just human, after all!

So, I feel it’s a good thing to recognize what’s good and how we’re growing as individuals and as a system – sometimes we all need to look back to see how far we’ve come, in order to gather the energy to continue growing. I also feel it’s unrealistic to think that any of us have it “all figured out.”

THIS is the danger I see in being caught up in an “identity” as an expert. Or of talking only about the positive. My greatest (and most humbling, even uncomfortable) moments are when my kids help me see my failures.

I have come to a space where I’m confident in myself as a parent and I don’t have to “prove” to anyone else that I’m good enough anymore. Now I find it much easier to start at what I’m not doing well and where I can improve. I can ask for (and hear) criticism – I seek it out.

This is a systemic confidence that I don’t see in our school system yet. As is often the case, I see it happening in “pockets” – there are most definitely individual teachers/leaders who seek out feedback and create a classroom culture that welcomes growth and shared learning. But so much about our system pits parents AGAINST teachers. The media fuels this adversarial stance. Public opinion, standardized testing, overwhelming PLOs/expectations, horrible labor relationtions experiences, chronic government underfunding (and undervaluing) of educators/schools/Districts – it ALL must contribute to educators, in general, feeling defensive and even insecure.

How many schools ask parents for input and/or feedback? Truly welcome it, in systemic and consistent ways. How many teachers make it safe for students to say what they really think and feel, about lessons or strategies or classroom culture or relationships, in consistent, systemic ways? How many students feel they can actually speak their minds (or do they feel it’s just a hoop jumping exercise and say what they think the teacher wants to hear)? What avenues do parents have to understand (or even know) what’s going on inside their children’s classrooms? Whether to support or to help or to give feedback – parents can’t comment productively without being informed somehow.

I too believe in our District, our leaders, our educators, our communities! I believe in our parents and in our students. I absolutely believe that the Coquitlam School District is an amazing place, doing amazing things, and keeping our students at the core of decisions.

I believe in us SO much that I’d like to talk about what’s *not* working sometimes…

The great thing about starting small is that small things can be changed at any level, but I do wonder if some things don’t require huge leaps – “start big: think big”… Seems to me that this is when it is hardest to be a good leader because it requires everyone to be on board. Big changes seem to marry the need for a leader to be both a great manager and a great leader and that, at least in my books, is a real challenge!

On the theme of “studying successful leadership practices”, I wonder where you look to when studying successful educational leadership practices? Which leaders and/or which districts do you look to for inspiration in the field of education?

How often do we hear the ‘battle cry’ for Reform or even Revolution in education? Meanwhile, what I really think is needed is Transformation. We don’t need a ‘teachers in the trenches’ metaphor, but rather a story of emergence & convergence… And with that, I’ll leave you with a story: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2874377/The-Butterfly-Lesson
~Cheers, Dave

Your blog triggered an early morning conversation with a colleague where we told each other stories of the many successes we have experienced the past few years. There is no reason on earth for us in SD43 not to whole-heartedly embrace the six strategies proposed by Doug Reeves, because we have long demonstrated an openness to ongoing meaningful professional development which has translated into a great deal to be proud of and not much to hide. We need to take serious pride in this, and refuse to be beaten down by political squabling among institutions we cannot control. As for myself, I need to find more time for reading blogs, as they are so often informative and inspirational. Now, for the day ahead!