This week’s #EdublogsClub Prompt: Write a post about challenging situations.
A challenge I face in my role as a technology integrationist for our district is handling criticism from others. I am a people-pleaser, and I like to have the approval of others. So moving from a classroom teaching position to a district-wide support role meant that I suddenly have many more people who either approve or disapprove of suggestions, ideas, proposals, etc. More teachers, more students, more administrators, more families, even more patrons interested in the district decisions around technology! I know that “you can’t make everyone happy all the time” is a phrase that many people use to help themselves rationalize away negative feedback they get from stakeholders. However, I want to be open minded and listen to all feedback I’m given and try to incorporate it in to my work. But this is, indeed, a challenge! I try to remind myself of the word “iteration” very often. It is ok to take critical feedback, because “this is only the current iteration of ______________.” Insert into that blank: this project, this tech deployment, this way of doing my job, etc. In the “next iteration” I want to do/be better anyway, right? So why not listen to the feedback and use what I can from it to grow!
Hi Lisa
Love your brainy quote!
My thoughts are you represent change that some automatically embrace/love while others don’t like any form of change and will react with disapproval. Understanding how others react to change helped me cope with the challenges of their reactions. I’ve written about it here – http://suewaters.com/2017/01/24/change/
@suewaters
Thanks for reading and leaving feedback, Sue! Your post has some great reminders for me and the funny videos hit the spot with keeping things light-hearted!
Hi Lisa, glad my post helped! They are old timeless videos! Thanks for sharing your funny video!
Hi Lisa,
I can really relate to your post. I recently started my masters in education online and most of the work that we do is shared and critiqued by our peers. At first, this was really challenging for me, I lacked the confidence in my work and was afraid that I would appear incompetent. However, I’ve really adjusted to this process and have found it to really be beneficial in terms of helping to develop my knowledge and offer considerations that I may not have thought of before. The more that I have put myself out there, the more confidence I’ve gained. These days, I look forward to getting feedback from my peers, I hope that you can also become more comfortable with receiving feedback and like you said, using it as an opportunity to grow.
Best,
Liisa
Thanks so much for commenting with such encouraging words!