Leadership / First Year of Teaching

What Do You Stand For?

Everyone stands for something.  What is important to you?  What do you stand for?  As an educator, what is your academic agenda?  How do you communicate this agenda to others?  I cannot give you the answers to these questions.  They are quite personal and different for everyone.  I believe these are important questions that we spend very little time thinking about.

What is important to you will in all likelihood evolve over time.  This personal vision should provide you a roadmap as you grow and develop as a teacher or an administrator.  And yes, sadly I must tell you, there will be detours and unexpected delays on your journey.  It is critical that during each detour or delay you learn something and work to ensure that you never have to encounter a similar experience again.  I believe this experiential learning process is critical for your maturation as both an educator and a person.

As a teacher your personal vision and academic agenda must be compatible with your school. If you are a principal or school leader your vision and agenda must be compatible with the district and community. I trust they match.  If they do not match, I strongly encourage you not to take this position or if you are currently in the position and somewhere a changed has occurred consider leaving the district.  There will be other positions that are more suited to you.  If what is important to you is not important to the school or district you will be in for a miserable and stressful experience.  At the end of the day, your unhappiness will impact the students.  This is grossly unfair, yet I have seen it happen many times.

Later in the week I will return to speak about ethical decision making and how these decisions can affect your career.

Have a great week.