Stability versus change : terms we love to hate?

September gets close to its end and after a different summer, we all go back to our daily routine...no matter how smoothly or not this happens, it constitutes a fact that we cannot deny and the best we can do is become familiar with it and provide all our energy to making the most of it.. How soon, however, will the  " need for a change " arise? We have all heard ourselves uttering the all-time-classic-phrase : " I need a change", " I'm sick and tired of daily routine, work pressure (or unemployment pressure perhaps) makes my days look all the same". 

The sun rises every Monday morning and and as it never disappoints us, it sets every evening and it doesn't take long until Friday comes. And it is on that Friday evening that we think: has one week flown away? I'd been so busy all week that did not have time to realise...and that's when we start believing we need a more exciting weekdays-life and start seeking for the desirable change.. My question, nevertheless, would be...how deeply do we wish for that change and how much do we really want it if we let weeks go by just like that?  Are we ready for it and if so, why don't we just become that change?

Our need for change, is reflected everywhere and our lesson would not escape that. Are we making sure we bring change into our class or have we adopted some kind of routine that makes us , and many times our students, feel comfortable with it? How come when there is a change in what we have to do, a strange kind of discomfort suddenly appears? Are we so susceptible to change as we like to believe? Are we really, that much dissatisfied with our lives, lessons, relationships... or us asking for a change and never making it real is just mere moaning for nothing?

All I'm saying is that changing a slight, apparently trivial detail of our day can make a huge difference...and not doing it but just asking for it only confirms the fact that we are just happy the way things are. If we are dissatisfied with the progress of our learners, why not try a different path or approach? If we are not happy with the palce we live, the friends we have, the people around us, the way we address situations, why not make a try to open a new door to a new approach to everything? How easy is it for routine to become a comfortable room where we feel somehow safe, although not so happy about it? And does that room not have a door? It is not posssible because we have entered from somewhere, so there must be a way out. 

I keep hearing people craving for a change and when that change is ofered to them , they start having second thoughts. And that's when I start wondering:  Do they really need that change they ask for? Or , in reality, they get  a little scared of changing and leaving the known paths that the current situation offers? Obviously, I then thought so about myself, my students, my school, my life. Everything sounds so obvious but it turns out that for somε people it is not.And I can not come to any conclusion apart from the one that tells me that if you really want it, just stop analysing every little detail and do it.Do not stop starting journeys then. Journeys only have to offer as long as we make the decision to sign up for them. If they don't turn out well, you'll just find the way out and open a new door. It doesn't need much strength. And if you find it hard to open a new door, you can always knock. Let life surprise you and,who knows...there might be someone there to open it for you!

Tools for educators or educators as tools?

     It's the beginning of a new school year and teachers all over the world start the ride of searching for new tools and equipment. All of us open our drawers, clean our bookcases, surf the internet, willing to explore and discover new useful links, learn about newly printed coursebooks, find out what are the latest trends in teaching, refresh our approaches and get ready to open our hands and give a big hug to our students that will open the classroom door on the first days of September. 

    And it is while I am searhing for my listening-activities-CDs, in front of a laptop looking for esl links,next to a pile of handouts and arts and crafts that a phrase I recently heard from a colleague keeps coming to me : "There was a power cut at school this morning, so I got totally out of track, I could not practice anytrhing I had planned to."  In answer to my question of what it was that she had planned to do,she said she had prepared a lesson based on a song and she needed  a CD player so the learners could listen to it. So simple but ruined as there was no way for her to play the song without electricity.

   I could not hide my surprise to the fact that the solution to what she considered as a huge problem seemed so obvious to me. "Why didn't YOU sing the song? " I asked. " Me? Sing the song? But...But..."...Too many "buts" appeared. "Buts" about her voice that is not so nice, about the fact that no music would be heard and many more. And it is because of all these "buts" that I cannot help but wonder : When are we,teachers, going realise to that the only tool we need in order to teach effectively is just ourself?

   Sounds selfish? Perhaps..but it is ourself offered to our learners, our skills used in such a way to facilitate the learning process that can make a difference. Our own skills, no matter how well we use them. That is, we don't need to have the voice of  an opera singer to sing in our classroom,nor the dancing abilities of Michael Jackson or John Travolta to dance in front our students and help them enjoy the activity. Our students will forgive (or will not even care about) some cute clumsiness they may see in us when we try to become fun for them. All they probably want from us is to be authentic,really believe in what we do and , most importantly, give our own special something to our lesson that is found in our personality and nothing that is non-human can give.Each one of us is unique and have their own special something.As students detect it, they can become really happy if we give it to them.

  My feeling is that we should start relying on ourselves a little more and start asking ourselves to use skills that our learners need. We can sing, dance, paly music-not necessarily with an "official" musical instrument, playing music can be clapping hands on a rythm and knocking on the desk with our pen- use our facial expressions and body to pantomime vocabulary, dramatise a story and so many more. It's all on ourselves. WE are the tool and we should be willing to make use of ourselves, trust them and rely on them, in the same way we rely on flashcards or websites and videos. I'm not saying not to make use of the latter, of course, but why so much reliance on everything else but our own abilities to become an alive and (hopefully-not) kicking visual aid?  

  In view of the new school year, then, let's refresh our tools and materials from all kinds of resources, but let's give ourselves a chance. While looking for tools outside, let's take some time to wake up some skills from inside. 'Cause it's about waking them up, not creating them. They are there, and always have been. We were just too busy looking for teaching tools everywhere else that did not hear them calling.