Today’s educators and faced with the ongoing challenge of authentically meeting the needs of the young people in their classrooms. Tensions exist between due dates, school events, and constantly changing curriculum demands. Amongst it all, there seems to be little time or energy left to consider the needs of the students in the class.
We survive by creating predictable routines and classroom practice that brings us some sense of sanity. After a few years it becomes so easy to default to ‘the way it’s done’ which brings us some comfort that we are getting through the ‘to do list’.
Unfortunately, not all of our students benefit from the same approach. Some need longer – some need more support. With others, we find, we have completely missed the mark, and for those our classroom is a place of complete irrelevance.
So what happens when we as educators find ourselves in that place of cognitive dissonance, realising that our predictable practice is no longer bringing us the sense of comfort it once did? What happens when we have that terrible feeling in our gut that by ‘catching them up’ we are actually ‘letting them down’?
Thinking beyond sameness just might be the first step. Daring to challenge the norm – our own norms, might be the second.
Taking a deep breath and imagine what a journey beyond sameness might look like for our students. Imagine a new approach where we can finally be authentic in listening, understanding and creating new ways to meet the needs of our young people. So go on – change it up! Move beyond sameness!