What is your compelling reason?

 I realized I am in need of some reflection and professional growth as I am feeling a bit static amid all the craziness of this school year where we brought all students back full time after 18 months of inconsistency in our school. 

As I often do, I turned to my education spirit animal, George Couros for some inspiration. I purchased his newest book “Because of a Teacher” not just for myself but also for all of our new teachers in our building and our admin team. While I wish I could have suggested a book group for us, I try to still be mindful of the craziness of your first year teaching. I recently reminded our new teachers in our bi-monthly meeting about the book and that it’s a great place to turn for inspiration after a challenging day and provides questions that allow us to think deeper about our why or compelling reason. 

I joined a Facebook group that George created as a book study and to connect with other educators. This weeks prompt after reading the first few (very inspiring might I add) chapters is to respond to the following (my current thoughts included): 

Week 1A - What is your compelling reason? 

This week I share the idea of “what is your compelling reason” which is meant to go beyond the idea of your “why” and really think about what pulls you to make a positive change.

Here are some questions for today:

1. Why are you wanting to make a positive change?

I feel ready and want to have a larger impact beyond student management and really have a desire to work on the bigger picture impact of a school/district through leadership that inspires my staff to support the education of all students. 

2. What is your compelling reason?

This is a big one for me. Much of it comes down to my belief in a better future for ALL kiddos based on the education we provide them that includes SEL, relationships and meeting them where they are today to ultimately lead them to finding their passions and bring them closer to their larger goals. I believe that every human being regardless of their gifts and/or disabilities has it within themselves to make the world a better place whether it be for one other person or for society as a whole. Educators today need to awaken this in every student who enters their classroom or school and value this part of everyone. 

3. If you are successful through this process, what would that look like to you?

I would have a leadership team that believes in the same things as me around the importance of educating ALL students. Yet, I think it’s important to be able to have challenging conversations where people present different viewpoints and rumble with them as a team knowing we have the same guideposts. I think education, particularly at the high school level needs to move beyond leveling and classifying of students into groupings, and we need to move well beyond the traditional core subject areas to get our students ready for the world of tomorrow, not the past. The pandemic provided us with an opportunity to reset and we need to take it before it’s too late! We need students to lead the way and our role is to support their growth into being better humans that contribute to a collective society that is better for everyone. I would also surround myself with people that go out into the world and grow themselves professionally and personally all the time so we could best serve our school community by always iterating and evolving in our thinking about what’s best for students.