I am convinced that I have been a change agent for my school and school district over the past several years. As a teacher, I have always been eager to reflect and learn new strategies to improve my teaching and consequently the learning opportunities for my students. My eagerness to learn and participate in a variety of professional development opportunities led to my role as lead teacher in my school. Developing a positive rapport with staff is critical to the success of encouraging teachers to adopt new teaching practices. They are open to me working with their students, assisting them with lessons and assessment or just to share classroom successes. These successes started with a school culture that encouraged support and a willingness to continually improve, always with improved student learning in mind.

Being a change agent in our professional circumstance, whether a classroom teacher, teacher-librarian, divisional consultant, administrator... we all need to be part of the critical mass who continually seeks new ways and understandings of how to support students in their learning journey. We cannot do this alone, and we cannot be static in our teaching practices when our world and the amount of information available is changing at an exponential rate.

I have started to make some changes at our school with collaboration. Our professional learning community began a couple of years ago and still continues. Our ideas have caught the eye at the district, which may lead to something at a later date. Start small, get some practice, and then move on to bigger ideas. Keeping people interested and showing movement are key ideas to success.