Unlearning

I am celebrating my one month anniversary in my new job this week. My learning curve is still steep and I often worry I am not attending to all the tasks or relationships that I should be. Though being new can be stressful at times, it also feels like a gift. Though I have much to learn, perhaps I do not have as much to "unlearn."  

In Leah Shaffer's piece Why 'Unlearning' Old Habits is an Essential Step for Innovation, she channels the work of Marga Biller, project director of Harvard'sLearning Innovations Laboratory. You can read the piece here, but the heart of the argument is that the inability to see beyond what has always been done in the past is often what stands in the way of implementing change. As I begin my journey as a “lead learner” in my new school I hope to embrace all the newness and question assumptions.

But even though I am new to the school, I bring with me cherished assumptions and ingrained behaviors. I hope that taking part in a new organizational culture and seeing things with fresh eyes will help me to change my old habits and channel new mindsets in the service of innovative teaching and learning. I already have a list of things I hope to try to do a bit differently, including how I mange my time, how often I participate in educational Twitter chats and how often I reflect on my learning through this blog.

My favorite part of the article is about trust:

“In getting started with unlearning, “trust” is a big theme. Administrators trust their teachers to guide students to proficiency with core skills. Teachers trust their students to figure it out without hand-holding

...you can start developing trust by letting your students have a voice in what they do in the classroom. She also added that trusting your students is the area where you’ll unlearn the most. “I’ve never been disappointed,” she said. “They always exceed my expectations.”