FLoW is a challenging process as a whole school change initiative. It takes the process of change to the extreme and requires all of us, as teachers, to live well outside our comfort zone for an extended period of time. It is difficult for us to understand the possible benefits when we self-identify as being effective educators and many of the changes are asking us to reconsider what we do through a critical examination of practice.
It asks us to critically examine our practices and realize that, although, they might serve us as educators, they do not always serve all of the students in our care. We often examine these practices through the lens of our “best” examples. “If it works for “xxx” it should work for everyone”. “If xxx can understand it, everyone should be able to understand it”. Rarely do we critically examine our practice based on who it doesn’t work for. For this to occur we must begin asking “who didn’t respond to this?”; “Why didn’t this work for xxx?”; “What changes can I make to help support xxx?”.
The Grade 7 team decided to approach this challenge as a grade level, to see how the entire system can be changed to support the learning of all students. The process started with discussion and quickly developed into decisions and planning that will facilitate a major experiment in learning this year. We are going to use a range of FLoW style experiences in all subjects to provide students with as much choice as possible within several limiters of space, schedule and timetables. The goal of this experience to will be to encourage student development of “soft-skills” including planning, time-management and organization of learning. Rebuilding these learning experiences are going to be a major undertaking, including work from all teachers, students and some parents. In order for this to be successful we are fortunate to have the full support of the administration and leadership of the school. This includes extended planning time, support for cover classes in order to support these sessions, facilitating discussions with families and acting as mentors to students to help create student teacher ratios that make the process manageable and valuable for all involved.
This is an exciting process, however, it is also considerably more scary that I anticipated. After explaining the outline of this plan to the whole community at the end of our PD days last week we are committed to making this a viable program. The Grade 7 team is an outstanding group of educators with student learning at the forefront of their mind, and the fact they are willing to take this leap and be a model for a much larger vision is humbling.
As this progresses I will continue to provide updates and information on our work. If you are reading this and think your experience might benefit our work please do not hesitate to leave a comment and let us know how the work we are doing could be even better!
Learning to Lead 