Educator Success: Lead Yourself

This is my one-word for the 2019-2020 school year. I find that having one-word that's used as an acronym to
lead my work helps me to lead my efforts well. 

Educators respond to multiple individuals and groups. As a teacher, I receive requests and expectations from students, families, colleagues, administrators, directors, coaches, liaisons and state education leaders and departments. That's a lot of people to answer to, and sometimes what those people need, want, and expect conflict. What's an educator to do?

Educators have to lead themselves as they navigate countless requests, expectations, and responses from many. What is important as we take on this leadership role.

Job Description
Know your job description and expectations well. At times, these job descriptions are not well organized, and sometimes the job description does not exist at all. It may be that you have to write your own job description and then abide by it.

As I think of my own job description, the priorities include the following:

• Sensitive, kind, and responsive focus on all students in my charge each day.
• Teaching all standards in engaging, child-centered, brain friendly ways.
• Meeting system-wide goals and priorities with depth.
• Advocacy for student needs, interests, and rights. 
• Teaming with families and colleagues to promote the best possible service to students each day.
• Apt communication with families, students, colleagues, and administrators related to forwarding a positive, child-centered teaching/learning program.
• Optimal collegial collaboration.
• Timeliness, respect, positive energy, and continued learning in order to promote optimal teaching/learning programs for and with the learning community including students, families, colleagues, administrators, and community members. 

Communication

Apt communication patterns are integral to leading your teaching/learning efforts well. When you work with lots of people, good communication will vary. For some, a simple email works well. For others, regular meetings are better. And then, there are some with whom you will have to sit down and figure out what kind of communication is best. With families, our team sends out a regular newsletter that can be easily accessed at any time via our grade-level website. This works well. Our newsletter reviews what we have done, what we plan to do, and what we are doing now. Our team also readily responds to emails and sets up meetings regularly to respond to family/student/colleague needs. We share a philosophy that to deal with issues up front while the issues are small is the best way to build strong, positive collegiality and apt service to students. 

Our team also keeps a running list of issues to discuss--this is a good way to support our collective efforts in a timely and responsive way. When communication is challenged, it's important to lead by finding ways to communicate well with individuals and areas of school life that are less clear and easily accessed. Being proactive in situations like this is essential.

Allies
Good leadership requires that you have an honest, positive team of allies online and in real time. You need to find and nurture collegial teams who will offer honest advice and critique, and a group who will lead you to the resources that will work to strengthen and develop your teaching/learning career. Ready ally support include your local/state/national unions, discipline/grade-level teams, and other groups that focus on areas that connect with your professional interests, goals, and needs. 

Goal setting, vision making

To lead your work forward in positive ways, it is essential to set goals and create vision for your work. I keep a goal-focused website to track my efforts, and I try to match those efforts with system-wide and state-wide goals and expectations. I find that this is a positive way to keep track of what you do, and be able to share those efforts with others who work with you and lead your efforts. 

Sometimes we may expect others to lead our work in education, but the reality of teaching well is that most of us have multiple leaders and it's essential to coordinate that varied leadership by leading ourselves forward. That leadership includes a process of evaluating and intersecting the many leadership messages you receive and integrating those messages with your job description and goals in thoughtful, respectful, and proactive ways. This kind of leadership helps an educator to stay strong, positive, and successful as education communities change over time.