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Leadership habits

Habit 2: Start with the End Goal in Mind

9/6/2015

3 Comments

 
       This week the habit of highly effective people that I will be working on, and teaching my colleague, Courtney, has to do with having a vision.  In order to be proactive (the habit I learned last week), we need to start with a vision of where we want to go, or have an end goal.  Being proactive and starting with the end in mind will allow me to move away from being dependent on others.  I will become more independent and others will see my independence and my sphere of influence as a leader will increase.  
       I’ve never articulated my end goal or vision before.  I know I have them, but I don’t normally sit down and think about them.  Sometimes my end goal is to get through to the end of the day of teaching.  Sometimes my end goal is to successfully get to the end of a unit with my students.  However, my end goal in a larger sense has always been simply to provide a wonderful learning experience for students.  If I keep this end goal in mind, my students and I will have a fantastic year learning and growing together.  Aside from the goals I have with my students, I need to start thinking about a goal that goes beyond my classroom.  I need to start thinking about what kind of impact I’d like to have as a teacher not only on my students, and my site, but maybe my district and, if I’m being ambitious, my city or state.  I can see myself eventually participating in curriculum development and/or teacher training and mentoring programs.  I’d love to take what I have learned in the classroom and share it with others.  Whether that be in the form of developing curriculum that I believe would help students be successful, or supporting other teachers in the same areas.  I appreciate being asked to think about my end goals because I’ve never really thought about it before.  Now having them written down, I can take steps to achieve them.  
       In my belief statement for my leadership platform, I talk about how I believe the purpose of education is to prepare students for the real world and support them in developing certain skills: collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking.  If this is my end goal, I now have to take those beliefs and put them into action.  If my actions match my beliefs, I will be seen as a reliable professional.  Further, once I take action, the results I achieve, for example helping develop a curriculum that prepares students for the real world, will determine my character as a leader.  My authenticity will be established if my beliefs match my actions and produce the correct results.  Therefore, having my end goal in mind gives me focus and steers me towards being seen as a reliable, authentic professional with a larger sphere of influence.  
       I will sit down with my colleague, Courtney, this week and describe to her the importance of having an end goal.  I will explain that it provides focus and guidance in your professional life.  I will tell her my recently discovered end goal and how I hope it will allow me to increase my sphere of influence.  I will take the time to challenge her to think about some of her end goals, small and large as well.  I will continue thinking of my end goals throughout my teaching career and take steps to develop my reliability and authenticity as a leader and increase my sphere of influence.
3 Comments
Jessica Love
9/6/2015 01:50:15 pm

Such a great post, Andrea! I love your honesty and I feel like you took the words right out of my mouth. I'm so focus of my goals in the classroom and that ultimately I'm driven by the goal to provide a meaningful learning experience for students and help them grow. When I stop to think about what I want for me and how to make an impact on others aside from my students, I realize I'm a little fuzzy on a clear answer. I've also considered my future professional goals to include curriculum develop or teaching mentorship, but as I see all the different opportunities that exist in education I not sure which way to go. Therefore, I'm really glad we are being pushed to form a clear vision. I think I need that.
Look forward to reading more from you.
~Jessica

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Bill Robinson
9/10/2015 12:28:32 pm

Andrea,
I appreciate that your current focus is to have a great experience for your students. I also agree that it is time for you to start to think about expanding your sphere of influence as you consider your own professional goals. I also get it that sometimes the big goal is just to get through the day. LOL

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Michael A. O'Hagan
9/14/2015 11:24:18 am

I also have never really mapped out my end goals, until recently. I like that your end goal is very student centered. Keep your ambitions in sight. We need people at the city, county and state level who have your kind of dedication to student success. When I was in North Carolina a teacher publically challenged a memner of the State Senate Education Committee to spend just one day in her shoes. He accepted it and later changed his opinion about many of his future and previous votes when it comes to education policy and funding. I think that when you do move to the county and state level, your end goal to, "develop a curriculum that prepares students for the real world," will serve you well. I really liked this post, and you have my vote!

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    Andrea Jacobs

    Fifth Grade Teacher
    Dog Lover
    Technology Enthusiast

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