Who is the educator in your midst that coaches you forward?
Who is the educator in your midst that uses positivity, knowledge, experience, skill, and energy to encourage you to do good work, overcome the obstacles, and continue your efforts towards teaching every child well?
What is the regularity of that positive coaching and those words of encouragement?
How does this make a difference in your teaching/learning organization?
What role do you play with regard to positive mentoring, encouragement, support, and motivation?
Do you positively work with your colleagues to help each other reach deep to get the energy and encouragement they need to do the job well, and perhaps to do the job even better than in the past?
Personally I love to work as part of a dynamic team that strives to help every child learn. I love the positive debate, discourse, and share that occurs when everyone on the team has a similar mission with regard to children, and rather than demean each other, they work together to strengthen both individuals' work and the work of the team. Children truly benefit from teaching/learning teams like this.
We all play a role on teams like this, and how we play our role matters with regard to the team's success. For many of us this continues to be a direction different from the isolation and top-down directives of the past. The idea of shared leadership and collaboration in many schools is somewhat of a new notion (or perhaps a rebirth of a former structure), one that has the potential to truly energize and elevate the work we do.
I don't want to forget this as I work to forge new learning/teaching paths in my own work and endeavor--paths that make a positive difference with respect to student learning, happiness, and success. Onward.
