Another year of teaching (but I am sure it will be not the same, here is why)
This is the first year after coming back from a study trip in Kazakhstan and the UK organised by InnoPower@JC. After seven years of teaching, what I originally expected was a similar start to happen again, as someone said teaching is like a cycle that repeats every year. Surprisingly, I noticed that some of my mindsets have changed while preparing for my academic year.
- Sharing ‘why’ instead of ‘how’
- Exploring connections
- Focusing on direction instead of details
It would be interesting for me to record the mindset shift I had in my mind before the academic year starts. I believe that something great will happen this coming year when the first step is different.
Sharing “why” instead of “how”
Sharing the steps of finishing a certain task is easy for me, and it is something I usually do. I have a habit of recording what I have done and documenting how I have solved a certain task. I remember one day imagining that when I leave work, I will pass the documents to someone who takes over my role. They should be able to finish the same task because the documents are well-written. This creates a tendency for me to share the steps of how I do certain things instead of why I would like to do certain things. However, people are not robots; everyone has different working styles. The solutions that work for me might not suit others. I have learned from XP school that they spend a lot of time making sure that teachers understand why the school would like to do something. At the same time, they allow flexibility for teachers to solve problems in different ways. When I describe the tasks to my team this year, I notice some phases that might not have happened so frequently in the past:
“The purpose of doing this is because…”
“We would like students to learn…”
“The most important thing is to ensure students can learn…”
By focusing on the goal or “why,” I think we can be more flexible during the working phase. We are in the age of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), and many things are changing. While planning is very important, the things we plan might not work anymore at that time. The most important thing is not whether we have completed the tasks, but whether the purpose of doing those things has been fulfilled. If the purpose is fulfilled but not in the way we planned, can we really say that we haven’t finished that task?
Explore connections
My family always told me when I was a child,
“Knowing people is better than knowing words.”
As knowledge is important, it tends to make people focus ONLY on theory instead of the people around them, especially for teachers who spend most of their time in the classroom. Due to the long working hours and lack of connection events for teachers, it can be hard for us to explore connections outside of the educational field. On the other hand, many organisations in our society would like to work WITH teachers in many ways. It would be worthwhile for teachers to spend some time exploring these connections, especially within their surrounding community, to seek opportunities for learning WITHIN the community. It consumes less time than what I was thinking. What I experienced last year is that when teachers take the first steps to connect with organisations (start-ups, NGOs, etc.), they tend to be happy to have cooperation instead of rejections.
So, one change that I have made this year is to start calling different people before I begin actual planning. I seek opportunities for cooperation. Not all the calls may result in real cooperation in the end, but it is still worth it because by simply calling, you are building up a connection and keeping it at least. You never know whether it will become an important connection at some point in the year. At the end of the day, learning is not just in the book; instead, learning can happen anywhere in our community.
Focus on direction instead of detail
My mindset on planning before this year was focused on detailing the workflow or timeline. After setting a goal, I rarely made sure that my team knew and understood the goal. I remember asking my team to write an action table in the past year, where I wanted to know every step they would take. Actually, I experienced pressure and stress when I told them to do so. First, they might not be able to share every step. Second, it created extra workload for my team. Neither of these benefits the growth of my whole team. This year, I am more result-focused. Instead of guiding them through every step, I ask myself:
“How is the vision look like?”
“What will be the output at the end?”
“What observable changes should we expect to see from this goal?”
After that, I share the “output table” with my team and ensure that they understand what the most important result is. At the same time, they can choose the ways in which they work on it. At this stage, I feel more flexibility and less tension. Because I am not focusing on every step they take, progress checks will not happen as often, but only at key steps. This mindset helps me and my team visualise the most important steps we should take this year.
These are the three things I noticed from my change. It is not advice, but a record of my change. I don’t know whether these mindsets will work or not. However, I think it is interesting to write down my journey of change or the journey of becoming a change-maker.
