I've been at my new job curriculum directoring for about 6 months now. I've also actually been instructional technology directoring as well, since we currently don't have someone in that position at my district. So, it's been a busy 6 months learning a new culture, learning the IT stuff, and trying to assess where the district is at and where we need to go. I get a lot of requests to do things I've never done before, and, when I'm asked, I internally respond like this: And then I have to go and figure out how to do it. Because it's my job.
I've figured out how to write federal grants, how to yank out thousands of lines of student data from our student management system and then upload it into various other systems, the best way to organize and differentiate professional development for all curricular areas based on the limited data I have so far about the curriculum and the mindset of the staff, how to set up ACCESS testing online for the first time, how to get different buildings in a unit district to sit down and actually talk to each other for articulation, and how to do state reporting via our student management system (which, in Illinois, is pretty much a nightmare).
All this figuring out hasn't been easy. A lot of it has been fraught with little failures, setbacks, doing research, screwing something up, going back and doing more research, networking with surrounding districts, and a lot of calls down to our state assessment division. It's also come with a lot of me reaching out to people in my district for help and being told that they have their own problems to solve and walking away from me, which is incredibly disappointing. We're all in this together, aren't we?
But this has also come with a lot of reflection. I always told my students it's not how much you know that counts in this day and age, especially since information is no longer scarce with this whole "internet" thing. It's about what you can do with what you know...or how well you can find out what you don't know and then use it.
Well, I have been living that advice since July. My job isn't so much about what I know - its about finding out the what and the how and then doing it. It's about shrugging off the fear of failure (a fear that can paralyze people into inaction) and digging in to the unknown to figure it out. And I think it's our job to teach students those skills and that "go ahead and figure it out" mindset, supporting them along the way.
We need to teach students that just because they don't know or they don't know how doesn't mean they can't ever know or know how to do. Learning is about finding out, failing, trying again...all towards success. That's what matters.
Let's teach students what matters. "Doesn't know" doesn't mean "never know."