Professional learning may be about expanding our own skillset, but professional growth is about testing our own fears.
Change is scary, especially in schools. It’s the unknown. It takes courage to do something new, to try an approach that you’ve never tried before.
Or, importantly, an approach that we’ve never tried before.
But to never feel scared, as an individual or as a community, there is no growth. There is no change.
When we have a clarity of purpose and a deep belief that we are doing the absolute right thing by students, change actually gets less scary than if we were setting out on our own. When we are fully clear on the “why?”, and when we have a shared vision that we’ve articulated clearly and resolutely, testing our own fears becomes a natural path to growth, as an individual and as a community.
And, importantly, it creates a safe culture for students to test their own fears, to grow with us.
No doubt as individuals and systems and communities, we need to keep learning. But it’s only by continually stepping out of our boxes that we keep growing.
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