This year I am teaching a first/second multiage classroom. This is a new challenge for me and while incredibly exciting, it is also incredibly time consuming. All this to say, I missed the last weekend IMMOOC and then on Monday morning, Molly came in raving about it and I realized I had majorly missed out. Well not this week, I woke up and tuned in to watch Shawn Clark and Brady Venables discuss how they are creating innovation in their own district in South Carolina. I was so impressed to see two district leaders talking about how they are still pushing and challenging each other to be in classrooms and teaching even though they no longer have classrooms of their own. Their conversation got me thinking about my own teaching experience through the innovator’s mindset lens George Couros talks about. This is my tenth year teaching and my fifth year at my current school. One aspect of my teaching that I am proud of developing is a comfort with risk taking and this has happened because there is someone right next door to me willing to do the exact same thing.
Molly and I connected instantly when I was hired, I think at the time because we both taught math in a similar workshop manner. However, what I quickly found in Molly was someone who was willing to listen, push and take risks right along side me. And this connection has allowed me to feel comfortable with taking risks and the failure that may sometimes occur. Simply put in Molly, I have found my people. And watching Shawn and Brady this morning, I realized the power and the need for all teachers to find their people. When you find a person that pushes you, encourages you and reflects with you, your teaching becomes so much more powerful. Part of having an innovator’s mindset, in my opinion, is finding your people without a person who is walking down that same path with you, you are way less likely to take risks, to know failure really isn’t failure if you reflect and learn from your experience. I know that there is no way I would have been able to develop a true Innovator’s Mindset without Molly. So my challenge to everyone reading is to find that person or people. If not at your school, in your district or maybe through a twitter PLN. When we find people we truly connect with, we grow so much more in our teaching and our students and our school community benefits.