How To Survive Criticism When You are Leading the Way...

I have been taking some hits lately. Sometimes I wonder why I am being criticized so much, and then I remember how much I am pushing the envelope. Often being the one out front, pushing makes people feel uncomfortable. Now, let me clarify; I am by no means leading in anything I do; I have stolen most of my ideas from other GREAT minds. Sometimes ideas that have been around for awhile are still not comfortable for people; education is slow to change.

I am connected. I have a large PLN of really supportive teachers from all over the country. These people are my go to people, and they often answer questions I have, give me support on a bad day, and we have some great conversations about best practice in art education. My enthusiasm for my twitter chats, online classes, podcasts, and blogging sometimes turn people off. I find that I do need to tone it down some, and hold back SOME of my enthusiasm (though it doesn't stop me from sharing!)

I use technology, a lot! Not at the expense of hands on art, but yes, my students do need to know how to keep a digital portfolio. My students should be able to share their work outside of the classroom. I will bring in artists through skype and google hangouts, and did create a website in an effort to personalize learning, making it self paced. All of this talk often makes people uncomfortable. I get responses like, "Can't they just do it how we always did it? Make art and put it in a folder?" No! That would be a huge disservice to my students...we are preparing them for jobs that don't even exist today, and we want to just do it how we always did!?

I don't like the traditional grading system of points and percentages. (this could be a whole blog in and of itself) but to keep it short, that system has never accurately explained what an artist knows and can do. Frustrated waiting for the educational system to change, I have made as many adjustments and improvements to the current system that I can to make it accurately portray what a student knows. More on that here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ld75MWj37UupyAmaCpXPcNXjZEhcbUqrKNloRhgocVc/edit
This means explaining my process to students and parents so communication is very clear; why bother? I have an ethical responsibility to my students to make sure their grade is directly related to their learning goals.

When people are coming at me with, "Why can't we just do it how we've always done?" "Technology has no place in the art room" "Can't everyone in art just get an A?""We've heard enough about this twitter thing"...how do I keep my cool?

I often need to go back to the why; why are these things important. I need to skim the books, and articles that I have read, re-watch TED talks that inspired me, check in with some of those amazing PLN people that I mentioned, so that I can remember the why. When I remember the why related to everything that I am doing I can be assured that I am working toward best practice, and even if that makes people uncomfortable because I am moving too fast, I remember why I got into this in the first place, and remember that the slow pace of education makes me uncomfortable, and I cannot let it suck me down! If anything I need to keep up m
y enthusiasm, throw a few people some life preservers, and pull them up with me! it can be really hard to have passion, and keep that passion in this educational system. Make sure you know your why, have your motivational resources bookmarked, and some of your PLN people on speed dial, because what you do is too important to let a few negative comments derail all of your awesomeness!

One of my friends once told me, "It takes 20 positive comments to outweigh 1 negative comment"

How about you, how do you survive criticism when you are out front pushing the envelope?