Education Is A Profession Of Change

“Your old road is rapidly agin’ /Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand /

For the times they are a-changin’ “ – Bob Dylan, 1963

To write that education is constantly evolving and that good teachers are open to change seems almost cliché. However, education, by its very nature, is a profession of change. As a “110 percenter,” I vowed to not only pursue excellence, but to embrace change. I would never settle for complacency, and I would do my best to leave this noble profession better than when I found it.

“Don’t stand in the doorway /Don’t block up the hall / For he that gets hurt / Will be he who has stalled” (Dylan).

There is no mistaking the fact that change (learning) can be both difficult and messy. If I expect my students to learn, then I have to create a true learning culture where both the teacher and the students are learners. In pursuing this learning culture, I have embraced technology, flipped my class, created project based learning opportunities, and I have kept a strong focus on the literature (including song lyrics) that I know can be life changing for my students. I am quite proud that my classes are a healthy and vibrant mixture of technology, collaboration, and traditional methodology.

My teaching, however, is only part of my professional responsibility. I firmly believe in building a school culture that promotes learning, community, and relationships. As part of my Master’s Program in Education Leadership, I studied the role of schools as part of the community – the education system as an integral component as opposed to an isolated system. What this has to do with my teaching philosophy is simple: Successful schools (and the individual teacher) must build and sustain relationshi...

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... be applied to teachers; becoming involved in school-related activities (including professional development) helps develop relationships and build skills that make the job fun and rewarding, and it fosters the culture of learning.

I believe that good teaching starts with a strong content background, good classroom management, solid organizational skills, a true love for your students, and a belief in the magic of a future that we cannot always predict. I also believe that this profession, like life itself, comes with a duty to leave it better than we found it. My philosophy can be summed up as this: Teaching is more than lessons and more than test scores – it is promoting change and it is teaching students to never, never, never quit.

Dylan, Bob. (1963). “The Times They Are a Changin.” Retrieved from http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/times-they-are-changin