Dr. Shelly Arneson Author and Consultant
  • Home
  • Blogs and News
  • Workshops
  • Consultation
  • Shop
  • Links
  • Contact Information
  • Dissertation
Picture

Happy Communicating
​

Change

8/30/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture


I love this quote.  It reminds me of so much in our lives.  One of my dearest friends, Denise, just sent her youngest off to school at Texas Tech in Lubbock.  We just talked about the “empty nest” she and her husband are now experiencing.  What a change! 

Glenn and Callista (our “do everything with” friends) have just recently moved in together.  They are combining households and learning how to live together.  A huge change, even though it is a beautiful thing!

My sweet husband, Dave, is about to retire at the end of this year.  We are already talking about how he will be experiencing an enormous change---he won’t have to get up at 4:45 anymore.  Wowee! 

Being diagnosed with breast cancer this year has been the absolute biggest change in my life!  Learning about the new normal with surgeries and doctor appointments has changed our lives forever.  I am so very grateful to be alive and waiting on my last major surgery to be finished with this changing episode in my life.

As I say all this, our sweet M.E., our 12 ½ year old yellow Lab, is beginning to lose her faculties.  She urinates on the carpet (which prior to this year would have mortified her as much as it is currently mortifying us).  She is staring at the walls in the house and outside on the porch.  She is pulling her hair out when she is in her kennel, which used to be her favorite place to be.

Change is inevitable but it is HARD!!!

My best example of this change quote is in the education world.  In my last year as principal at an elementary school (the best school in the world, in my humble opinion), we began using a new evaluation system.  Talk about change!  We went from what used to be what I call a two-ply system of “Meets Expectations” or “Are you still breathing?” to a four-ply rubric --- the Framework for Teaching---that actually focused intensively on teacher growth (Danielson, 2007).  Teachers and administrators alike went from “freaking out” to “figuring it out” together.  I won’t lie----it was hard!! But the rock solid teachers in our school often said things like, “This is really hard but I can actually see where I need to grow” and “I never got this kind of feedback before” or “I love having the conversation with you ABOUT my teaching.” 

I like to emphasize that the change is hard for administrators as well.  We struggled to get into classrooms more than we ever had before.  We struggled to make all the evidence we collected factual and not based on our own opinions and biases.  We struggled to have conversations WITH teachers, as opposed to the former practice in many schools of telling teachers what they had done right or wrong in their class.   By learning together, teachers and principals said they had been changed, as long as the culture of the school supported this change and evaluation was now being done WITH teachers and not TO teachers. 

A dear friend and colleague sent me this video clip yesterday and I found myself nodding like a bobbing dog hanging from the rearview mirror.  I couldn’t help but think of all the things this video clip brings to light about learning being done by the learner, biases, the fact that knowledge does not equal understanding and how unlearning something we have always done can take a long time but may well be worth the effort.

Check out The Backwards Brain Bicycle!! 

Just for today, perhaps we can think about the way change has enhanced our lives after we have given it a chance to settle in.  I would love to hear your comments on how you perceive this video. 

Happy Communicating!!!

Shelly

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Shelly Arneson

    Picture

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from Tjeerd, Johnragai-Moment Catcher, UnknownNet Photography, Mr. Bombdiggity, wuestenigel, quinn.anya, Chocolate Geek, Jorbasa, Leonard J Matthews, JefferyTurner, Golf Resort Achental, fabola, www.ilmicrofono.it, m01229, Heinrich Plum, Titanic Belfast, Strocchi, Cultural viewpoints from around the world, katrienberckmoes, fabola, susivinh, fourcroft, Sweet Dreamz Design, usarjnco, Eldriva, symphony of love, cordalth, boellstiftung, David Holt London, maryjohum, Tony Webster, Rich.S., ZK-OJQ, davidmulder61, garryknight, ChrisPerriman, mrkrndvs, goatling, YellowstoneNPS, Frederick Homes for Sale, Mary_on_Flickr, yourbestdigs, Dean Hochman, guillenperez, Janitors, rachaelvoorhees
  • Home
  • Blogs and News
  • Workshops
  • Consultation
  • Shop
  • Links
  • Contact Information
  • Dissertation