What questions are you choosing to guide your week?
Each week I try to offer you a guiding question that I hope will make you think. One that will lead our conversations and foster growth. There are rare moments when I am unsure of the path, I want to take us. Have you ever had that, when you are so caught up in some process or situation that you do not know which way is up? It has seemed that there are many people lately who are struggling with their direction and I am seeing our country flounder about too. I attended a meeting with our regional Superintendents this week and they too seem unclear at times of the right direction.
I was reminded of my role as a teacher this week, as I introduced our Professional Learning Community (PLC) plans at a staff meeting. Back in the day when I was a classroom teacher, I would give my students direction on what we would be focusing on for the week. All good educators will give an overview of how they plan to give instruction and what the outcomes could and should be. It is important to bring into focus what we hope to achieve for our students as well as our teachers.
It is important to me as a school leader to not give my teachers another thing to do, but at the same time offer them something to change our processes. We have chosen to do a book study associated with a guest speaker we are having later this winter. As I developed our PLC plan, I wanted to give guidance to the staff, so they can truly focus on the book and the message. The first scheduled PLC meeting, I presented the first chapter of our adopted book and gave an overview of the information so staff could be clear on the expectations. The main message I wanted to convey to my teachers was to gain some insight from the book through our PLC process. I am not asking teachers to completely change all that they do, but rather have a thought process of the procedures they do use. I want them and myself to truly think about possible changes to our daily procedures and teaching that can improve our processes and better help our students.
What questions do you ask yourself daily that bring focus to what you do?
What processes are you evaluating to help you improve?
Are you losing focus on a particular part of your life?
Have a blessed week, and I hope it is filled with success. As always, I look forward to your responses and discussions on my posts. Your feed back will only encourage better conversations.
