WHY: I believe the children of Cleveland, Ohio deserve a joyful and personalized learning experience that is worthy of their productive struggle.
HOW: Teachers will plan personalized learning experiences informed by data analysis and assign personalized learning, with a though-partner educator, through our Schoology learning management system.
WHAT: We will foster the development of joyful and productive citizens.
“Why” Reflection
The “why” attached to feelings needs to be very clear and intentional to get the desired behaviors to follow. As I look at the recent trends and initiatives in my district, we are always talking about the “thinking” side of the brain with the “how” and “what”, and not yielding the results we desire. Realizing that the rational thought or reasoning isn’t as powerful as reaching the heart strings with our passion and purpose has helped me narrow my focus to get stakeholders to join me on this very important and urgent change project.
I am excited to see how this plays out with a profound “why” that pulls at the heartstrings of educators of providing personalized and joyful learning opportunities for our kids that are worthy of their productive struggles. Our district mission statement includes this why. We need to show up everyday facilitating joyful and personalized learning opportunities that help to close the achievement and opportunity gaps that exist for our scholars. We can make the difference. Education is a career choice that I like to think of as passion work or a calling to serve. If we come back to why we do our work, then the willingness to do the seemingly hard work will follow. Dr. Kottor’s reference to “60/40″, helped me prioritize focus on all parts of Sinek’s golden circle, with emphasis on the “why” (2011, March 23). The challenge now is winning over both the hearts (60%) and the minds (40%) to accomplish our desired goal.
I do believe hearts have been tugged with my “why” and heads will be empowered with the “how” process to achieve the desired “what”. As stated above, a career in education is passion work, and when educators connect to the “why” the passion drives the hard work of the “how”. I look forward to reflecting back on this work with great success of leading organizational change in my district over the next two years.
References:
Harapnuik, D. (2015, January). The head won’t go where the heart hasn’t been. [Video]. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.harapnuik.org/?p=5461
Kotter, J. (2011, March 23). The heart of change. [Video]. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://youtu.be/1NKti9MyAAw