Change
What roadblocks of to change most hold you back? How will you work to overcome these?
Change is something that cannot be avoided but is essential for evolution in every aspect of life, including the professional, educational, personal, physical, and emotional. Change has long been an issue of conversation in education, but it did not occur until teachers were compelled to alter the way they conducted and taught in order to have a good impact on students' learning. Technology integration into education has long been a goal, but it was not fully implemented nationwide until the year 2020. Technology in education, like anything else in our world, has advantages and disadvantages. For instance, technology makes it possible for students to access databases for research, complete projects, and communicate, but it is also the same technology that teachers use to fend off interruptions in the classroom.
Although change is necessary for progress, there are some barriers that prevent people from adopting it fully, including fear, time constraints, the status quo, cultural norms, financial constraints, and attitude (Sheninger, 2019). Two things have personally prevented me from embracing change. Time and mindset. Time is precious, but for a teacher working two jobs and going to graduate school, time is practically nonexistent. Time constraints make change challenging and nearly impossible. But just because something is challenging does not mean it cannot be done. As a result, I have adopted the same mentality that I have when teaching my students. Using each minute wisely while simultaneously taking care of oneself. Through chunking, I've discovered how to make the most of my daily time so I can work on lesson plans, analyze data, and finish homework. My actions and mentality had to change in order for me to improve my time management. I came to realize that these issues affected me, my career, and my students (Sheninger, 2019, p. 58). Because of their importance, I found a way. All of my responsibilities, including lesson planning, grading, data analysis, and communication, were simpler as a result of my learning about technology and making the time to improve myself. Even though it occasionally felt like tehcnology because of the inexplicable and how silly and frustrating it felt to attempt to figure it out, it gradually developed into technology that I could comprehend and apply for both my own improvement but, most importantly, student achievement.
Sheninger, E. C. (2019). Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times. A joint publication of Corwin ICLE.
