Coaching Myself: What's Important?

School life is very complex, and there are many, many ideas that circulate to improve school from many arenas. No teacher can consider all of these ideas or get involved in every initiative. So one challenge for educators is to prioritize and work towards the areas that matter most in their practice.

I will think about this again and again in the next few months as I focus in to do good work and make thoughtful impact. I want to veer away from efforts for which I have little voice, choice, or impact, and move towards the areas where I can make a difference.

So where am I headed:

• Continuing improvement of the math program to teach all students well
• Continuing improvement of the science program to teach all standards and students well
• Continuing improvement to the portfolio efforts
• Continuing improvement to our efforts to embed and forward social emotional learning/emotional intelligence/character development efforts
• Continuing efforts to create a welcoming, warm, and dynamic learning environment and collaborative team of students, family members, educators, and administrators

These, I believe are the mainstay of my practice and the areas where I am expected to do well. I am looking forward to what the goals for the system and school will be. I am wondering how they will be similar to my priorities or different, and I will update my priorities to reflect those goals in the months to come.