A day in which I feel overwhelmed. 

It's hard to give yourself a break when you're surrounded by the greats of the past. Not necessarily the 'big' greats (Hitlers and Henrys, as those who ill-informedly lament our curriculum might say), but just the ordinary lives of those people whose lives we touch when we study history. We see their courage in the face of the Great Depression, for example, or their resilience in the face of unsupportive Labour and Conservative government policy towards immigrants in the 1960s. We see their determination in the Battle of Hastings (fancy taking part in a fight to the death for someone you might never have met, in the name of 'Angleland'?), and their belief in the face of oppression (think we've faced anything like an Inquisition?).

So, if I've such brilliant role models in the past, why do I find it so tough to fight my own battles - even just the little ones, day to day? So this got me thinking... What are the ingredients one needs NOT to feel overwhelmed... i.e. what are the ingredients of courage, or resilience or determination - whether in the face of battle, or in the face of Year 9 (you might say they're the same thing). My first thought is: vision - you need a vision. You might call this purpose, philosophy, or mission - or simply the know why. It might be 'macro', concerning worldly or society-wide issues, or it could be micro, concerning just those Year 9s. But you need a core. If you don't have a vision, you get a sense of confusion (why am I doing this, what is the point?). You also need skills - the know how. Skills are the way you will do something - such as the skills Henry VIII needed to become that fine Renaissance Prince (being multi-lingual was a good start); I need the skill of behaviour management with my year 9s, and the skill of differentiation... Without skills, I'll get anxiety (I don't know how to do this?!). Next up I think you need an incentive: if I do this, I will achieve... If you do this, you will achieve... In our classrooms this might be called the relevance factor or the "we're doing this because". In the business world it might be called salesmanship! Without an incentive, you don't get customers; without customers you won't make money... or in our case, win over the children so they want to learn. Of course, another ingredient NOT to feel overwhelmed is resources. What will be used to implement the vision. This might be my brain (and others' brains) for the pedagogy and creation of resources. But it could also be more physical materials, from glue and scissors to a computer. Without resources, your vision + skills + incentive will be pointless because you've no delivery method. Then you need a plan. A plan makes the vision a long-term process, a journey - not just a flash in the pan that will last 20 minutes as with my year 9s today. I'd failed to communicate the incentive, I'd not demonstrated the plan (or 'made clear the enquiry' in history speak). They couldn't connect the dots... unsurprisingly, the lesson was horrible.

Those of you who have done any reading into change management will know that what I've written about here is a matrix by Ambrose from 1987 who wrote a book called 'Managing Complex Change'. He explored successful change and devised a model for planning for change and troubleshooting. And, as I re-read it now, it occurs to me how brilliantly relevant it is - not just for school leaders, but for us teachers too. Every single unit of work we teach is an attempt at 'change management' because we are seeking to change our students from a position of knowing/understanding X to a position of knowing/understanding Y. The model has helped me to see why I feel overwhelmed today (key ingredients were missing), and has given me a suggestion for what I need to implement.

Of course, I'm now wondering whether Ambrose's model can help us to think about change in the past. Can it help us to understand why the ordinary greats - the people who volunteered to fight William of Normandy, for example - showed such determination? Did they have a vision, skills, an incentive, resources, and a plan? Well, I certainly think so! Whilst their skills and resources might not have been wonderfully refined (the farmers with their pitch forks weren't necessarily the best prepared!), I suspect they had buckets of the rest... Perhaps the buckets of the rest, in this example, made up for the other two areas and convinced them the fight was worth it.  Perhaps this is why William won: his men did have great skill and resources, plus the other ingredients too.

So, the more I think about this, the less overwhelmed I feel, and the more I think I've just given myself something quite exciting to think about in terms of teaching what factors enabled change... 

What do you think?