The document is a field guide for change agents, developed during a workshop in January 2009, designed to provide resources and support to educators seeking to effect change. It emphasizes the importance of being a willing agent of change, facing challenges, and developing a collaborative approach among educators. The guide includes insights, quotations, and tools for fostering innovation and mentoring among educators.

1. Field Guide for
Change Agents
Photo Credit: left-hand

2. This Field Guide for Change Agents was developed during a workshop at Educon 2.2 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in January 30, 2009. As workshop leaders, we were honoured to
have participation by educators from around the world, including remote participants who
joined us via Elluminate.
The creators have agreed to license their work with an
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Creative Commons license.
You are free to share or adapt the work, on the condition that the author page and
photo attributions are included.
Yours in collaboration,
Rodd & Ben

3. Co-authored on January 30, 2010

4. Chapter 1
Admit It:
You are a
Change
Agent
Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks

5. "With great power comes great responsibility"
-Uncle Ben
Photo Credit: Krassy Can Do It

6. “There have been significant advances in recent
years. We're moving in the right direction, just
not quite fast enough.”
- April Gromnicki
Photo Credit: Éole

7. Invention is a flower,
innovation is a weed.
—Robert Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and
founder of 3Com.
Photo Credit: Balakov

8. “Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what
you are for what you could become.” - Unknown
Photo Credit: Sir Mervs

9. An effective change agent is
someone who can't be afraid to
change course.
Mary Beth Hertz & Eric Conti Photo courtesy of CrazyFast on Flickr
(@mbteach) (@ericconti)

10. A person who knows her own mind - how it learns
best - is most likely to be able to change her mind
Photo Credit: ViaMoi effectively.
Gardner (2006)

11. Photo Credit: 黒忍者 - Buckminster Fuller

12. Definition of a Change Agent
-noun
1. closet pyromaniac
2. one who sparks fires in their world
Jason(raventech) Ramsden
mage: 'The Oil Planet' http://www.flickr.com/photos/18583731@N07/2731049453

13. It really is okay to be proud
of the work that you have
helped to create.
While no passion of yours is
100% yours, there is something
important about standing up
for the change that you believe
needs to take place.
There are moments when "we"
(students, teachers, admins)
are ready to move on to the
next step in our progression.
We have to know when that
is as well.
Photo Credit: laurenmarek

14. Trying not to drown anyone with my waves.
Photo Credit: angela7dreams

15. Some men see things as they are and say WHY? I
dream things that never were and say WHY NOT!
RFK, 1968
Photo Credit: wikimedia commons

16. Photo Credit: Stefan's Page
You Were Born to Fly, So Quit Being A Chicken - Ben Hazzard

17. "Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers"
Don't be afraid to be an explorer.
Photo by tofu_minx

18. Photo Credit: joshbousel
Change is the unstoppable force. Are you an
immovable object?

19. Photo Credit: Fairman
Change is good... you go first!

20. Chapter 2
Challenges
of
Being
a
Change
Agent
Photo Credit: Philon

21. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting it to come out different"
Photo by like_shipwrecks

22. Photo Credit
"It's a good
thing we're
perfect."
-Carey Pohanka and
Debra Garcia

23. Threat of the THWADDIES*!
*(That's How We Always Did It)
Photo Credit: alist
Kevin Hogan, Tech and Learning

24. I feel like I am the
only one
Photo Credit: multiget

25. The problem is never
how to get
NEW innovative
things into your mind
but how to get the
OLD
OLD ones out. Unknown
Photo Credit: japanamanda

26. Whatever changes are being considered, sustainable
leadership should look to the past for precedents that
can be reinvented and refined, and for evidence of
what has succeeded or failed before.
- Hargreaves (2005)
Photo Credit:haydnseek

27. If you let
negativity and
lack of interest
halt your
progress, this is
what you risk
Photo Credit:Darwin Bell

28. Sometimes we are on the
outside looking in of the
conversations we need to be
in. Getting "in the room" or
"in the circle" matters.
Not contributing isn't always
an option.
Photo Credit:Elisabeth Audrey

29. "When I am out there, in time, I
am inverted, changed into a
desperate version of myself."
-- Audrey Niffenegger
Photo MirandaLouisel

30. Change is like
sunshine...
some change because they
finally see the light and
some change because they
FEEL THE HEAT.
Photo Rishibando

31. Helping others embrace change
without feeling threatened.
Image by Hannah Beth

32. Chapter 3
The
Change
Agent
Toolkit
Photo Booleansplit

33. Foster collaboration between teachers,
schools and districts
Photo Credit: Sharon Peters

34. Respect and use
the wisdom
of experienced
teachers.
Photo arnolouise

35. Build
Bridges
Make
Connections
between old
and new
Photo iguanogo

36. Keep
sprinkling
new ideas
around.
One is
bound to
stick.
Photo Tinkiak NC

37. Develop a PLN
Photo cobannon

38. If you want to collaborate globally, know your
time zones
Photo dno1967

39. “The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a
very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers,
pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These
people…will now reap society’s richest rewards and share
its greatest joys.”
- Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind
Photo Zoe

40. Asking good questions is the best tool in your toolkit. Always.
Photo paurian

41. Chapter 4
Mentoring
Change
Agents:
Finding
Mutual
Support
Photo Powerhouse Museum Photography

42. When you
find
someone
who
thinks like
you, don't
let go!
Photo courtesy of WolfSul on Flickr

43. Photo marfis75
Quote from: Victor Frankl

44. Education is
what remains
after one has
forgotten
everything he
learned in
school.
Albert Einstein
Photo Colin Jagoe

45. Photo henry grey
Especially in moral occupations like teaching, the
more one takes the risk to express personal purpose,
the more kindred spirits one will find.
- Fullan (1993)

46. Struggle
shouldn't be
avoided in
support. We
should be okay
with asking
really hard
questions of one
another.
Photo rockfingrz Photography

47. Change Agents Found Here