Day 27 – #AprilBlogADay – Letting Go

How to Build a More Powerful Classroom by Letting Go

I don’t understand fully what happened to me when I became a connected educator. That’s when it started, though. That’s when my classroom became more powerful. That’s when I began to let go. I became the chief learner.

When I started that journey as a reflective learner, about five years ago, everything changed. It wasn’t about blogging and Twitter, necessarily. Those just happened to be the conduits for change.

It was really about learning, thinking about learning, and reflecting on my learning through blogging. Then, with the help of Twitter, it was finding a community of enthusiastic educators that I could follow and learn from. Critical friends that we could rub virtual elbows with.

That’s when my classroom became more powerful, and I was able to let go.

So, my advice to all of us, if we want a more powerful classroom, we must continue to let go. Let go of control. Let go of power. Let go of the illusion that we are sufficient for our classrooms. We aren’t. We need our students. There is so much that our students already know. There is so much that our students need to do and be.

They need freedom to be able to share their knowledge. They need freedom to do and become.

They don’t need us to pretend to have answers. They don’t need us to do and be it for them.

Our classroom becomes more powerful, when we spread the power to all in the room.

What do you say? How do you let go?