Learning is About Change

It's the fundamental principle in our profession: learning is about change. We start with the basics in elementary school, teaching little ones letters and numbers, and progress all the way up through advanced courses in high school. We build and scaffold learning so that all students can grow on their own unique path to fulfill the Vision of a Graduate: to be knowledgeable, connected, reflective, and skilled. 

But it can't just be about our students. The adults in their lives, faculty, staff, and families, we have to grow alongside our students as well. That's hard to do. Change is hard. It's uncomfortable but necessary. 

Photo courtesy of The Huffington Post

When I am in front of a group of people and struggling to get their attention, I recall the feedback I received as a first-year teacher. Loretta Jene, whom we called Yoda not just because of her small stature but because every word was full of wisdom, accurately told me after my first teacher observation, "Mr. Ricca, you use your voice to control your class. You need something else in your bag of tricks." She was right. 

It was uncomfortable for me to hear that feedback. I was proud to know I could control my classes with my voice. It was more challenging to try something I wasn't sure would work the next time I needed to quiet my class down. There were a few missteps before I settled on one or two techniques, none of which involved me yelling louder than my students. 

If we are to grow and learn with our students, we will have to endure some discomfort. We can't grow when we're comfortable. Unfortunately, being too comfortable leads to complacency, which is not the recipe for growth. Sometimes, the bravest thing we can say is "help" when someone is next to us trying to help us grow. 

It's fundamental to education that we grow and change. We know this because we are fine-tuning a Master Plan for new educational buildings that will include space for the professionals critical to education today, who did not exist when our current buildings were constructed. And we do grow and change as faculty and staff, to meet the needs of students which are perhaps more diverse than ever before. 

We can always do better. We can always learn more. We strive to meet the educational needs of our students while we are growing and changing at the same time. 

We are educators. 

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