O is for Opportunities

Each day we are offered a chance to start anew, given fresh opportunities to get this thing called "living" right. In the teaching profession, we work to master academic excellence by way of teaching and constant professional development. Let me offer some help by way of word association possibilities.

Starting Fresh

Teaching offers us constant new beginnings. Quarters, semesters, terms, new school years being new students, new course content, and undoubtedly, new perspectives. Teachers tell students they have short memories which allows yesterday to be forgiven and today to be new. Is it true? Or do we too easily recall a person's past indiscretion and treat him or her accordingly?

Renewal of Personal Commitment

Each day is a gift to us as educators and to young people as learners. Everyone needs to assess commitment to the responsibilities of the unique job so we can ask learners to do the same. The death knell to education from any perspective is the phrase: "I don't care."

Goal-Setting

Don't leave anything to chance. Set goals daily, weekly, monthly, and beyond, then review them often. Goals are not meant to be set in stone, but emerging, growing, and flexible. If you aren't meeting your goals in a reasonable time frame, decide if they are the right goals for you, then take the opportunity to make positive changes.

Learner Engagement

Evaluate the number of learners in each class who you can categorize as "engaged." Create a spreadsheet for yourself and decide what the definition of engagement is and do a quick ranking of students weekly. Then look for improvement, no matter how small. Identify what is working for you, for your students, and what seems to have little impact. Detect trends, shift gears, and, most of all, celebrate successes by letting them know.

One Student at a Time

While you have classes with many students, work hard to see each student as an individual. You wouldn't want a supervisor to only lump your hard work and skills into the collective term "staff" and be unwilling to acknowledge those unique things you bring to the team. So too we need to honor our students one at a time, whatever it takes. We have many technology tools at our disposal now to do this easily.

Reflection: Have you reviewed your opportunities today, making sure you aren't missing anything pivotal to your personal success or that of your students? Take time to do it now.