Advice For Myself

I know it's been a while since I've blogged in this space.  It's hard to blog when you're busy transitioning into a new job, and my life in the past month or so has been one of rapid learning - rapidly learning new people, new curricula, and a new culture in my sort-of new role as curriculum director in a new-to-me district.  I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do differently from my past experience as an administrator, and I've come up with a little list to guide me through the course of the year - some advice to myself, if you will:

• Ask more questions than tell answers.  I can't remember where I heard this, but I read once that, in your first year anywhere, you should be asking more questions than answers.  This is so you can learn some history and get a pulse for the culture and where people are at.  I have been consciously doing more asking than telling, and I have learned so much in the two months that I have been at my new position that has helped me out.
  
• Don't be afraid to not know all the answers.  This tripped me up last time I was a curriculum director, and I am determined not to let it make me fall on my face again.  I refuse to feel like a failure every time I don't know something; I won't let my perfectionist personality do that to me again.
  
• Get and articulate a clear vision. In my last stint as curriculum director, that particular district had been without one for two years and had a new-ish superintendent.  I'm not sure they knew what they really wanted me to do, so I felt my role was largely undefined for a few months until I started to define it. But this year has been very different, and I already have a direction and vision as to where we need to go (probably because I asked more questions this time around). 
  
• Relentlessly pursue the vision. In a leadership workshop I attended once, the presenter said that good leaders that accomplish good things in districts are the ones that relentlessly (and ethically!) go after their vision.  Now that I have a vision, I now plan on asking for what I really need to make that vision a reality instead of holding back out of fear of repercussions or a "no" answer.
  
• Be present. There are four buildings in my new district, and I plan on being physically present in classrooms one day a week.  In fact, I plan on blocking out time on my calendar for each building so I can get around and see what good teaching and learning is going on.  And I also plan on asking questions - lots of them!
  

So far, my first two months have been amazing.  While I will always love teaching, I have never felt more at home in a new place than I have felt at my new district.  I feel that great things are going to happen, and I am happy I will be a part of it. Here's to a fantastic year!