Consistency is Key
As someone who enjoys ‘changing things up,’ and innovating teaching and learning, I think we can all agree that there are some instances where consistency is key. Consistency is essential to reinforce concepts and foster a healthy, thriving school culture.
I’ve been thinking a lot about consistency lately as we just adopted a 10-week old Goldendoodle puppy. We didn’t expect to necessarily, but everything just came together as things do at times. Our puppy, Chloe, has one of the finest temperaments I’ve ever seen in such a young dog. However, she’s still a baby and learning. After all, she’s only 11 weeks old at the time. She’s currently on her fourth day of no indoor accidents and has learned to sit and come on command. There are other behaviors though that she still needs a lot of work on. Those include nipping when playing or thinking that a walk means to put the leash in her mouth and try to play tug of war. She’s making me think daily about the importance of consistency!
Chloe is trying to figure out the world, along with all of the humans and fellow animals who are in her life. Each day we see her learning and catching on, but it’s because we are consistent in our actions (I have to admit, she’s pretty darn smart, too!). Each time prior to walking in the door, she now knows that she is to sit before the door opens. She knows that she’ll receive a treat each time she goes to the bathroom outside and so forth. As with everything in life, it inspired me to think of education and our schools. With that said, I am not comparing training a dog to learning or fostering culture, as they are very different. I also don’t believe in giving tangible rewards to humans for positive behavior, I’m simply focusing on the concept of consistency and Chloe is the reason the topic is on my mind.
As I mentioned, consistency isn’t a word that necessarily inspires me the way that ‘innovation’ or ‘exploration do. However, it’s essential to fostering a school culture that thrives and to the learning process. I believe that we can have both innovation and change along with ensuring consistency in our actions. What we do consistently, demonstrates our inner beliefs. If we talk about teaching through a culturally diverse lens or inspiring curiosity in learners but then only do them on occasion during certain times of the year or school week, are we truly cultivating the learning environment that we speak of? Of course, something is better than nothing; yet consistency is key.
In reflection, there are so many areas we benefit from being consistent in. They may seem like common knowledge, but I think that in the busyness of the day we often lose sight of some of the areas listed below.
We benefit from being consistent in:
- Reflecting on our practice
- Engaging in self-care
- Greeting our learners
- Maintaining a positive classroom environment
- Teaching through a culturally diverse lens
- Providing meaningful and useful feedback
- Listening with empathy and understanding
- Adding-value to others
- Investing time in cultivating relationships with both colleagues and learners
- Embracing quiet time or mindfulness
- Inspiring curiosity and incorporating opportunities for creativity
- Providing time for exploration and inquiry
- Engaging in team-building to foster communication and collaboration
- Leveraging social-emotional learning
- Foster a learning environment that embraces every individual for who they are and their unique differences
Being consistent in these areas elevate our work and help us to be more human centered. After all, our work is about people. We have so many amazing things happening in schools, but sometimes they occur in pockets. I believe that some is better than none, and I also understand that it’s easy to feel consumed in all of the mandates and ‘to-do’s’ within a school day. However, if we plan consistently to incorporate the actions listed above, we and our learners will have an even stronger opportunity to thrive. Every child deserves to have educators who are consistently for them and seeking to support their growth– and every educator deserves to be a part of a school community that supports and inspires them to be their absolute best. What we’re consistent in, becomes the norm; a habit, if you will. From there, we can continue to grow and improve, creating changes that impact a lifetime.
