Time Capsule reposts blogs from years past.
In the eighth year of Teach & Serve, there are more than a few from which to choose!
Expectations Change. Get Used to It.
Originally published in November 2020
Perhaps because the majority of us who are educators remain locked away from our students, teaching from our homes and considering what next year brings, the topic of change is more relevant than ever because, even though we are not in our buildings, we are about to turn the calendar page to May and, for most of us, May means the end of the year. For about a fourth of our high school students, though the final rituals this year will look different, May means they end of their time with us.
And though the conclusion of the Class of 2020’s high school careers have been altered, we hope their time with us has been time well spent. And we hope that our coming graduates are different now than they were when they joined us. We hope they have changed.
We know that things change, that people change. As educators and institutional leaders, are we not all about change?
Students come to us as one thing, they leave another, hopefully positively influenced by their time with us. We anticipate and expect them to change. If they were not changing, something is horribly wrong with how we have structured our environment. They are changed. They must be.
We anticipate changes in curriculum and the tools we use to teach (if we do not anticipate changes here, we should get out of the game). If we did not anticipate changes before, surely in light of what we have faced over the last months, we do now. We know that curriculum and the tools used to deliver it will change. We (hopefully!) embrace this idea, get ahead of this idea and are inspired by this idea.
But when expectations of us change, how do we react? When we are confronted with the reality that those for whom we are responsible seem to have new expectations of what we will do, how we will teach, the manner in which we will lead, how do we respond? Do we face such changes with the same enthusiasm we apply to the ones mentioned earlier or do we have a reaction which suggests, “hey, you knew this about me – you knew this is who I am and how I do things”?
Look, expectations of teachers have changed radically in the past weeks. But expectations of teachers have always changed and will continue to do so. Expectations of administrators have, likewise, changed and will continue to do so. If you believe who you are when you started this work is who you will be ten, fifteen, twenty years into it or ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, I seriously encourage you to think again.
If we are not changing, looking for new ways to do things, for new ways to interact, to teach, to lead, then we are not suited for work in schools.
We are surrounded by change. Why should we be exempt?
Expectations of us change. Even at the end of the year.
Get used to it.