Becoming the Change

One of my favorite quotes of all time is:

"We must become the change we want to see in the world." Mohandas Gandhi

At this time of the year, conversations revolve around New Year's resolutions and making change in our lives. And although I have been in education over fifteen years, I don't think I have ever been a part of a school or district that takes this time to refocus/discuss/rewrite their mission for change. It seems sort of natural, a "doh!" moment (to quote Homer Simpson). Educators continually talk about change and what needs to be done, but rarely do we do temperature checks along the way. It usually takes a report being due for us to look at what we said we would do and re-evaluate.

I recently wrote on my personal blog about Defining 2011. Taking inspiration from Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project, I developed my own 12 Personal Commandments. What if every classroom, grade level/department, school, district developed their collective commandments? What would that look like? Would there be consistency from the ground up? Do we know what our mission for change is? Does every member of the team know and believe?

The Instructional Technology Division will be developing our own list of commandments and we will share them next week on the blog. Be on the look out! But in the meantime, how are you going to become the change you want to see in your school(s)? What commandments will you follow to get there? Please share with us!

Image from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dreamfish/3368619008/