Don’t set out to manage your classroom or keep students at arm’s length. Dive deep into your educator toolbox and build genuine relationships with your students. Let them know you know them and care about them and that you are excited they are in your classroom. If you visit Justin’s room, you are very likely to see him standing on tables yelling, “Dilly Dilly!” and waiting for a like response from his students.
Nothing beats passion and building relationships. Relationships first! This means engaging in real, intentional work—not just saying that you like what you teach or that you care about your students.
Does your passion for your work come out in the projects your students have in front of them? How would your students answer this question? Does the culture in your environment inspire and motivate?
Revolution@ry Fact #3: They accept that the work will be as rewarding as it is tough.
In this book, we’re going to talk about our mindsets, what middle school learners can do, and about redefining our spaces, work, and expectations for our middle school learners and education in general. Some of this won’t be new and some will have a different spin, especially as we talk about middle school (#itstartsinthemiddle). But we are going to ask you to embrace the unfamiliarity as we think differently, and to give up some things for the benefit of elevating learners.
This should be a collaborative learning experience. We are encouraging you to join our discussions at #revoltlap and grow your understandings while building up your PLN (personal learning network).
This is the start of your Revolution.
For us, it starts in the middle.
We all will learn and grow.
Chapter 2
Add Some Revolution to Your Mindset
The biggest risk you take in life is not doing something.
—Naveen Jain
If we, as revolution@ry educators, are going to cause a real shift with ideas like those presented in this book, we must have the right mindset. The grit required to sustain this movement will be considerable. (For our purposes, we are defining grit as “a belief in an idea or principle that requires persistence through resistance.”) Make no mistake—the traditions of the past will work against us. The outdated habits of not only teachers in the trenches but also school district leaders will work against us. Our own fears might also tear us down, if we allow them. To stay the course, we must continually remind ourselves of the cost—to our kids—of doing nothing. We must embrace a total sea of change. Yes, this is bona fide revolution!
We realize most of the educators reading this will be teachers. Our hope is that every school leader will read this, but the truth is that most of our powerful difference-makers are teachers. Real change comes from the teachers in the classroom who put it in place. Leaders present a vision, and teachers make it happen. Use your voice to work with your leaders. Do you feel like your voice is being heard at your school? Is your input on your school’s purpose valued by those in charge?
Before revolution@ries can do what is best for the students at their schools, they must have a clear purpose to rally behind. This purpose usually has more traction if it is a collective belief, widely supported across your entire school community. In this chapter, we want to guide you through finding your purpose as a group to create dramatic change. We want to inspire you to band together to create a revolution.
Finding a Collective Purpose
Picture this familiar scene: The start of the school year is fast approaching, and you will have several days of in-service or professional development before students arrive. What will that PD look like for you?
Far too many PD hours are spent with logistical material and protocol minutia. If your experience is similar to that of my (Darren’s) school five years ago, then you spent this precious time reviewing the staff or student handbooks, discussing district protocols, or catching people up to speed on new policies. Sure, there is a time and place for these items, but your primary focus should be on building a unified culture. You can always count on one thing: positive changes don’t happen in an unhealthy culture.
Culture is the most important aspect of any school, so our focus must be on creating a culture where our learners will thrive.
It took me a while to figure out just how important creating culture is—and that we need to talk and learn about how to create it. A few years ago, I spent our few PD hours doing what had always been done: going over handbooks, policy, and special notes from central office. By the time we had finished all the managerial items, the teachers were stressed out and anxious to get on with planning for their learners. The amount of information educators have to try to ingest can become an impossible mission at times.
A Shift in Our First Hours Together
Harrisburg South Middle School (HSMS) is a part of a rapidly-growing district in South Dakota. It is nestled just below Sioux Falls along Interstates 29 and 90. South Dakota has been my home since birth. I have great pride in my state. I have great pride in my school district and building. This pride comes from its outlook to the future and its willingness to question tradition and embrace change. Embracing change is hard for some groups of people, though.
HSMS, I believe, values change because we realize it is best for kids. The staff has embraced the voice of the learner, implemented a personalized learning model, created a vibrant makerspace, and connected learning with schools around the world. We are not a private or charter school, although people often ask me if we are. We are a public school in an incredible district that embraces a vision for what education can be.
How does a group of individuals build a foundation on collective purpose? Collective purpose thrives when the culture is open. Teachers must feel like their voices matter and be treated like the adults and professionals they are.
I was tired of relaying tedious information to my teachers. We all want value in our time, so I set out to find that value.
What changed for me? First, I followed the footsteps of a few great teachers in my building and flipped the instruction of our meetings. We are all adults, so I wanted to treat them like adults, trusting them to learn on their own. Links to handbooks or recorded explanations of policies were sent to them to review.
Second, it hit me that we needed to have a defined purpose, a collective purpose. Our building had to focus on our purpose for our learners. Producing a collective culture is difficult without a purpose to hang on to. I believe it is so important to have a cohesive understanding of why we do what we do. Ask yourself what is more important: the tradition or the purpose?
But we were still moving and working without a purpose, and this led to a moment of clarity. With my presentation ready, I invited all our staff, including aides, custodians, and office staff, to be present for this building meeting and professional development day. I started with a quote from Bold