Have
you heard about any changes underway for your school, district, or
university? My last two posts have described the inevitability of change, how
to anticipate and prepare for it, and ways to support the change process. From
experts in the field of business, here’s a list of why change can fail:
·
Employees
do not understand the purpose or even the need for change
·
Lack
of planning and preparation
·
Poor
communication
·
Employees
lack the necessary skills and/or there is insufficient training and
development offered
·
Lack
of necessary resources
·
Inadequate/inappropriate
rewards
Let’s
think about that from the a educator’s perspective. It’s human nature to want
to change something when we see the need. And we are most supportive of change
when we identify the need ourselves. Even if a change has already been
introduced, it might be helpful to go back and do a needs analysis. Bring data
to bear, and let that trigger specific scenarios. Making the need personal
increases buy-in for change.
The
obvious solution to lack of planning and preparation is to plan and prepare!
Hopefully you have the luxury of a change of pace during the summer to do just
that! As a coach, you can not only prepare yourself for upcoming changes, you
can help teachers to do the same. An heads' up now can stop teachers from being
blind-sided in August! In your communication, let them know
what you’re doing to prepare. That will open their thinking to ways they might
begin getting ready.
Avoid
the pitfalls of poor communication by over-communicating. Teachers may not check email regularly in the summer, so a hard copy in the mail may be warranted
if the upcoming change is a significant one. Text messages or even a phone call
might also be considered. Even if communicating this change isn’t your
responsibility, as long as there’s not a moratorium on the information, being proactive
about spreading the word is beneficial. You can couch the information in a way
that will help teachers receive it with grace.
You
can also put plans in motion for necessary training. For example, if a new data
management system is being installed this summer, be preemptive about helping
teachers learn the technology before they’re required to enter test data that
first week of school! Sooner is better, especially when technology is involved,
since some will be a bit technophonic and need time to adjust.
Think
now about resources needed to support the change. If your school will be
pushing guided reading, for example, start investigating leveled readers. Then
you’ll be prepared with your order when the new fiscal year rolls around (probably
July 1st!).
The
final reason change fails is inadequate/inappropriate rewards. I’m one of those
educators who believes in intrinsic motivation, especially when it comes to the
innovative work that teaching requires. Instead of carrots and sticks, offer what
I call the three C’s: choice, challenge, and collaboration. Dan Pink, in his
Ted Talk on motivation, offers a slightly different take that emphasizes
similar ideas:
By
being aware of the reasons change fails, coaches can be proactive about
upcoming initiatives, ensuring that the outcomes of change are in the best
interests of teachers and students.
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Ideas
about balancing instructional and frustration level texts:
The
most important 8 minutes of a lesson (and some thoughts about how to use them):
Easy
digital tools for formative assessment:
A
mini-lesson on teaching “signals” for content-area vocabulary learning:
“Our
students do not learn what we teach.” Thus begins this interesting article on
the role of assessment in guiding instruction:
That’s it for this week!
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