Working towards my new world

Brave enough to move towards a New World? 

I’m working on it.

If you could choose to do whatever you wanted in your class, what would you do? 

If you could design your ideal new world, what would it look like? 

What would you choose to keep? 

What would you choose to do away with? 

What would you choose to develop?

The world works through us; it’s not just a case of our being in the world.  Our decisions, our actions, our ways of doing and being reinforce the course of events; it’s our actions that change things, or don’t. What’s more, it happens whether we are aware of it, or not.

My Utopia

My ideal world would revolve around learning and change would be evident from, and thanks to, ever more meaningful connections on both individual and society level.  Real communication would follow from conscious interactions.  Individuality would be fostered through cooperation and collaboration. Respect would emerge from a true appreciation of diversity and difference.  Individuals would be the beating heart of a system based on social justice and possibilities.  They would feel appreciated and they would enjoy life by constantly and competently developing beyond their present personal and professional circumstances.   

Respect would underpin all dynamic change processes.  Change would remain the only constant, but it wouldn’t be change in any direction, it’d be change in the right direction. Change would mean empowerment.  Change would mean respect.  Change would mean reflection.  And this, would be progress.

In my ideal world, increasing awareness of what, how and why individuals do what they do would mean they take more responsibility for what happens, and/or for what doesn’t happen. It would mean ever more ownership, more individual leadership and more deliberate actions.  Individuals would feel more fulfilled because of their active roles, they would work confidently in ways which not only cover their own personal needs and preferences, but simultaneously lead to progress; measurable by change in directions coherent with everyone’s best interests.  

In my ideal world, teachers would be brave.  In my ideal world, teachers would develop beyond what they currently do, in ways which are coherent with their aims, to help whole societies move towards this ideal new world.    Teachers would reflect upon what they’d like to see happening within and beyond their classroom walls.  They would be aware of their influence and use it to work towards consciously chosen and as such, meaningful end goals.  Teachers would choose activities that were consistent with these aims, as a means to this end.  Teachers would help scaffold thinking around both past and present circumstances, with clear ideas about the direction in which they’d like things to move, a route which would be coherent with their aims and those end goals.

The objectives, tasks and activities chosen…

The activities I designed around Brave New World are an example of how I believe this could work in my personal circumstances.  The activities I chose were done so to help my group and I take steps towards my end goals and move towards my utopia, my ideal society.  What’s more, I consciously chose these activities in a bid to simulate my ideal new world; they were an example of what this could look like in practice.  This included listening.  This included communication.  This included cooperation.  This included reflection and evaluation.  This included my doing my best, with, and for, the students in my classroom as an example for them to follow.    And, perhaps because of this obviously personal investment on my behalf, perhaps because of some novelty value, perhaps because for my students it was clear we were in a learning process together, (or perhaps for none of these reasons at all), I believe that on this occasion our engagement was meaningful and authentic.     

In the month in which we carried out the project, motivation was apparent, challenges were accepted and learning evidenced.  We all moved beyond what we had been doing to date and constructed something which we later evaluated as more meaningful than on previous occasions and through other ways of working.   To get there, we all took risks, we all communicated and collaborated with each other at the same time as we took into consideration the needs and preferences of all of the individuals that make up the group.  We all trusted in each other and we all changed.  And I’d like to believe that we all moved forward, we all progressed through, and thanks to, the experience.

This methodology (CLIL) helped me to consciously take ownership of the direction of the change I wanted to help produce.  It supported a process in which I could combine and relate language and content to collaboratively develop beyond my current best practice.  It provided the framework from within which I could channel my influence, coherently, to do my bit.   An awareness of the goals I was working towards helped the path become clearer and the activities gain more meaning and significance.  It created challenges, but also guidelines, as to how to reach a best-fit solution for my particular situated circumstance.  It made for an experience in which the integration of language, content and individual agency resulted in more than the sum of the parts.   It resulted in an experience which was both a means to, and an example of that end in itself.

Where do we go from here?

It would be hard to move back to my way of working before the onset of this project - and not only for me, but for my students too. It may be naïve to think I even could.   And of course, it would definitely be incoherent with my ideal new world to want to. 

Patterns of working are what reinforce ways of doing, not isolated examples and I now have an adaptable tool in the form of CLIL that can help me plan the route and scaffold the journey.  I hope that the investment I make in terms of time and commitment will also result in my becoming increasingly confident and competent in my own personalized use of the methodology.  I hope that the move away from coping with my circumstances and obligations, towards doing things more appropriately, in my own terms, will help me face the challenges more fittingly.  I hope that by continuing to learn, the connections I make will be increasingly more meaningful.  I hope by continuing in this way I will feel ever more empowered to create new circumstances for further development, through more communication, cooperation and collaboration.  

Slipping into complacency will always be a risk.  Reflection is a must.  There are no guarantees. But I know my options, I’m aware of my circumstances and I understand my goals. Therefore, I believe I’m up for this challenge and the more I do, the greater the probability becomes that I will be able to evidence movement towards this goal.  Change will remain the only constant, but it won’t be change in any direction, it’ll be change in the right direction.  It won’t be easy, but I’ll make it worthwhile, for me and for those around me.  And hopefully, what will emerge will be more and more like my ideal new world.