C85 (Intro): How Do We Evolve Our Thinking?

The meaning of evolve is to develop gradually.  This captures the heart of our PYP journey.  We are developing gradually into educators that we want to be, so we can help to shape young humans into how they want to be.  When you take a step back and pause, it truly is a beautiful thing.  Evolution means that even with our past mistakes, we can continue to develop gradually into who we want to become.  

As I think of how I have evolved as an educator over the past 18 years, an experience instantly pops into my mind.  I’ve shared so many stories in this podcast over the past two years that they blend together.  Please excuse me if you have heard this before. 

My evolutionary journey

In 2015, I looped from fourth to fifth grade at my school in Dubai.  Our grade level was known for having quite a few behavior kids, particularly one child who had been sent to the office every day.  Upon returning to school, I discovered that I had 18 boys and 10 girls in my new class and the majority of the “naughty” kids were in my class. Because I had a special education background, I was always given extra kids that needed support, but this was too much.  What did I do?  I called my momma. 

As a retired teacher, my momma had seen it all. When I called her, I thought she was going to soothe my soul, but instead I received a lecture.  In her calm way, she told me to put on my big girl panties and deal with it.  Verbatim.  She reminded me that these children were going to have a new year with me and my only choice was to love them. They weren’t the same children that they were last year, because they had an entire summer to mature and to change.  I had to throw out all of the negative comments that I’ve heard about these children and just love them. 

Since I’m a good girl, I listened to my momma.  Not surprising, it was one of the best years in my teaching career.  

What was the secret ingredient?  I let my learners evolve into the humans they were always meant to be.  Bright, capable, self-initiated, and passionate.  I gave them freedom to choose how they learned, I built true relationships with them, and I recognized their various talents.  In short, I got out of their way and allowed my learners to demonstrate agency. 

As a result, I didn’t have a major behavior issue all year long. The boy who had been sent to the office everyday in fourth grade went to the office once in fifth.  He made a silly mistake and he knew it.  Because we had built such a solid relationship, he was more disappointed that he let me down than worried about receiving a punishment.  He did everything to repair the trust that was slightly broken. 

The naughtiest pack of boys begged me to allow them to work together during the PYP exhibition.  At first, I completely rejected the idea.  They came prepared with a plan on how they would manage their time, allocate responsibilities, and demonstrate their thinking in their final product.  I was impressed with their forethought that I released the control to allow them to work together.  It was the best decision I made that year.  The team truly lived up to their promises and it was an absolute delight to see their confidence and preparation shine forth on the day of exhibition.  

How do we evolve our learners? 

​How do we get learners to this point?  We explicitly teach them how to reflect deeply on their actions and their learning.  Reflective practice is more than providing a prompt for learners to respond to in your writing journals.  True reflection is looking back on our prior behavior, learning, and connections.  It’s a metacognitive process that reflects on how and what we know.  It examines what we will need to know in order to move forward and evolve. This cannot happen if we engage learners into reflective practice once a week on Friday afternoon. It has to be part of daily practice in order to become a disposition. 

What are the benefits of reflecting regularly?  I once heard Simon Sinek state that it’s those quiet moments when we are alone with ourselves that innovation occurs.  This stuck with me. It’s in those small moments where your best friend leaves you alone for a few minutes in a café that you have time to think.  By grabbing your phone, you are blocking the process of having an aha moment, reflecting on ideas, or finding an answer to a problem that has been nagging you all week long. If this is the case, why are we not doing this with our learners? 

​Reflection is a vital process of the PYP planning process. Why?  It’s through the reflective practice that we are able to openly assess what worked well with our learners, what stank to high heaven, and we can pose suggestions for next time.  This helps us to evolve our unit construction and learn from past mistakes.  Also, it helps us to look at teaching through varied lenses, so we can support a variety of learning styles and interests.  

WIth every evolution process, it happens gradually. The PYP journey is not a race.  It’s a slow winding road towards self-discovery.  At times, it feels like the hills you must climb seem endless.  Then, you get to the peak and you must start all over again.  As you become more familiar with the process, the peaks and valleys will regulate and you will find a rhythm in the planning process.  I promise that it does get easier with time, but it took me about 10 years to really understand it fully.  Remember, you didn’t master everything as a new teacher and it took time to develop your routines and practices. 

The main thing to remember is that the PYP is a continuous cycle of evolution.  You will never reach a point where you think you made it, because something will always change.  You might feel more confident in your process, but we get new learners each year that shake things up.  At the same time, we are not the same as we were the previous year.  We have matured, gained some confidence and have some new skills we didn’t before. 

With this said, let’s move on over to the challenge.  It’s time to POWR up!