When I came on board in August, a brand-new middle school campus was just completed. The new challenge I faced came in the form of a building. The biggest challenge for all was the new open-learning environment where the only walls that were built were the ones to protect us from mother nature. And although it was a slow start, it helped that all of the middle school teachers and students were in the same boat as I was, experiencing a new working environment.
As a new hire to a school with a strong reputation here in Hawaii, I was willing to be as flexible and innovative as I had to because I felt so blessed to have been hired. But to veteran teachers at the school, the open-learning environment quickly made people's anxieties transparent. Fears of being judged by their peers, loss of personal classroom space, and the mega-list of unanswered questions regarding how will it affect our students' learning were only a few of the barriers that made many of my colleagues feel overwhelmed and vulnerable. I understood why people were feeling this way; change is difficult. But it was more than "change" that was needed. It was a mind shift. A change in the way we think as educators. A complete 180 degree flip to our firmly-cemented teaching philosophies.
It was a rough start for many, but the amazing part about that rough start is people are beginning to make the mind-shift in order to embrace and make the most of our open-learning environment. Building capacity in others, sharing ideas, co-teaching, flexible grouping and scheduling all needed to take the front seat in order to help our students succeed. We are always telling our students that learning never ends and as teachers, we experienced this first-hand.
