Education is like most professions, full of good people with good intentions and strong desires to be productive and effective. For most professionals, this means finding things that work and ways to replicate success. After all, we all want to be successful and enjoy that feeling over and over.
But what does success look like? What does it mean for us teaching multiple learners with multiple needs?
We wrote ‘The Revolution’ as a call to reflect on what we do and why we do it and then – most importantly, make some changes. Are we looking for what the learners in front of us need or what we want or what we deem is best for them?
Its hard work and often harder realization to understand to come to grips with the fact that most of what we do in school is geared towards adults behaviors not learner needs. To bring that change towards learner needs requires more than just a shift or small changes sometimes, it requires real change, real action, real planning – a Real Revolution!
Some Indicators You Need a Revolution:
- Your schedule for the next school year was a ‘Copy, Paste’ effort from the last year’s schedule;
- Lessons for next year are planned based on interest from this year not necessarily needs of learners for next year;
- Order of what’s taught is more important than who is taught;
- You don’t have space and time planned for learners to have time and space for collaboration, planning or calm-down;
- Your makerspace isn’t accessible to everyone;
- Certain activities and clubs aren’t available to everyone;
- Assessment comes in one flavor;
- Your discipline policy and procedures are more about the number of offenses and less about changing behaviors;
- Clean, empty spaces are preferred over learning spaces.
We got into this for the noble, worthy cause of making a difference, not to replicate what has [or hasn’t] always worked well. Embracing that level of risk and challenge is the real work of Revolution@ries!
Derek L. McCoy 
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