The most important person I lead is . . .
July 1, 2019
I kinda feel like my pastor must some times. He starts a series of sermons, and he interrupts that series because something caught his attention, and he wanted to address is. Let me explain.
Before we went on vacation, I wanted to start a series on executive functions. If teachers better understood these, I think students would be better served in the classroom. I think teachers and staff everywhere would do well to at least be familiar with them. It has changed how I think (a lot of things have changed how I think . . . executive function understanding is just a part of that). But . . .
Last night, while on Twitter (my very favorite social media), I read a Tweet that said, paraphrasing - the most important person I lead is . . . me (credit Steve Gutzler with the original Tweet). This hit me hard, if you want to know the truth. I don't think of me leading myself. I make decisions, but lead myself?? Hmmm . . . I had to think about it. Some of you are going to get it immediately. Those decisions are me leading me. I just didn't think of it that way.
Do our students? We talk, harp (some might say), on leadership. We tell them to make the right choices. Lead by example, we say. But do we very clearly state: The most important person you lead is you? Do we talk about what leading by example means? We say "everyone is a leader" and we say "people are watching you", but do we say you are leading yourself?
This coming school year, I will have five classes of 8th grade and one class of 7th grade. This will be on my door the first few days of school for them to see. We're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how a person can lead if someone doesn't believe in that person. We're going to talk about excuses, about choices, and about admitting wrongs. We're going to talk about personal responsibility, and we're going to talk about responsibility to a group. I'm really excited about this.
July 1 always starts the thinking about school time for me. It doesn't dominate my days as it will in early August, but it does stay in my mind much more than it does in June (except for those nightmares on data collection . . . ). I'm jotting ideas and taking notes, and I'm excited to talk to my students about their leadership.
Until next time . . .
I kinda feel like my pastor must some times. He starts a series of sermons, and he interrupts that series because something caught his attention, and he wanted to address is. Let me explain.
Before we went on vacation, I wanted to start a series on executive functions. If teachers better understood these, I think students would be better served in the classroom. I think teachers and staff everywhere would do well to at least be familiar with them. It has changed how I think (a lot of things have changed how I think . . . executive function understanding is just a part of that). But . . .
Last night, while on Twitter (my very favorite social media), I read a Tweet that said, paraphrasing - the most important person I lead is . . . me (credit Steve Gutzler with the original Tweet). This hit me hard, if you want to know the truth. I don't think of me leading myself. I make decisions, but lead myself?? Hmmm . . . I had to think about it. Some of you are going to get it immediately. Those decisions are me leading me. I just didn't think of it that way.
Do our students? We talk, harp (some might say), on leadership. We tell them to make the right choices. Lead by example, we say. But do we very clearly state: The most important person you lead is you? Do we talk about what leading by example means? We say "everyone is a leader" and we say "people are watching you", but do we say you are leading yourself?
This coming school year, I will have five classes of 8th grade and one class of 7th grade. This will be on my door the first few days of school for them to see. We're going to talk about it. We're going to talk about how a person can lead if someone doesn't believe in that person. We're going to talk about excuses, about choices, and about admitting wrongs. We're going to talk about personal responsibility, and we're going to talk about responsibility to a group. I'm really excited about this.
July 1 always starts the thinking about school time for me. It doesn't dominate my days as it will in early August, but it does stay in my mind much more than it does in June (except for those nightmares on data collection . . . ). I'm jotting ideas and taking notes, and I'm excited to talk to my students about their leadership.
Until next time . . .
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