Be Better

Human birth is an astonishing natural phenomenon.  There are approximately 130,000,000 births around the world every year.  Despite all the measures modern medicine has acquired some percentage of these births are destined to end badly.   In the 1950’s one in thirty newborns died at birth, the same odds as a century before.    Then a doctor named Virginia Apgar  had a simple idea that transformed childbirth.  She developed a score that has become universally known as the Apgar score.  This score allows nurses to rate the condition of newborns on a scale of one to ten and intervene accordingly.   Over the years this rating system has had hundreds of adjustments and has produced dramatic results improving infant mortality rates.

Virginia Apgar is a positive deviant.   Her work made a worthy difference in the world.   Virginia Apgar had no authority to challenge the medical system so  she took a less direct approach and broke away from the norm.   She looked at the situation for infants and made up her own system to improve things.  

To become a positive deviant you have to change how you think.  When you do this new ideas emerge and you discover new ways to solve problems.  To create this paradigm shift it’s necessary to practice new habits by doing several key things.

1. Improve relationships.  Be a model of respect and kindness for your students.  Know your students; ask questions, listen and work to be a light instead of a judge.
2. Stop complaining.  When you gather with co-workers fight the natural pull of the conversational gravity to complain. Complaining doesn’t solve problems. It sets you up to be in a permanent state of against, this thinking will also contaminate other areas of your life.   Ideas and innovations come from interesting informative conversations.
3. Count something.  Become a researcher in your own classroom.  Keep your own statistics about student learning.   You will discover information that can improve your own teaching.
4. Write something.   Share your thoughts with others, keep a blog or a  journal about you observations.  Don’t underestimate the contribution you can make to improve things.
5. Change.   Become an adopter.  Don’t be attached to any one method, seek out the best solutions and be willing to recognize your own inadequacies.

Doing this makes you  a powerful proactive agent.   Instead of feeling like a clog in the machinery you become a person of influence.  Ultimately it’s those who influence who lead and make something better!