“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”
– Sheryl Sandberg
As a teacher and as a teacher advocate and as a supporter of public education and education for ALL students I often think about creating systems and structures that allow our students the benefits of “being in the right place at the right time“. Often I have written about we educators only having one year to make the absolute best impact on our students. Students only have one chance to be in kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, etc. We have around 175-180 days per year to facilitate learning in the most meaningful way possible. We don’t get do overs for our students – we have tremendous power over their lives and we have tremendous responsibility to ensure that all of our students are in the right place at the right time.
As leaders it is incumbent upon us, in my opinion, to create and sustain optimal learning structures so that the right place at the right time is not due to chance but due to deliberate planning and creation. Look at the quote at the start of this post from Facebook’s COO (Chief Operating Officer), substitute the word “leader” with “teacher” … our work is to make others better. We can make others
better by adopting a Right place at Right time mindset. When every day in school is a day of meaningful discovery and when every day we create sustainable structures that allow for differentiated, individualized, and ultimately to personalized learning, we will be living this concept of helping ALL students be in the right place at the right time.
Think about your own life’s experiences, when have you felt you were in the right place at the right time?
When have you described someone’s “luck” or “good fortune” as saying “X” was in the right place at the right time?
Let’s challenge one another to make every day one in which ALL students are in the right place at the right time!
I also truly believe in “right place” thinking! That’s why I am just a little disappointed that our 7th grade sax playin’, chorus and Charisma member will be unable to participate in art this year based on integration of band into the school day. She and 1 other student in her year (that I know of) are really being given an overload of music. Too bad some allowance cannot be made for our daughter to participate in art instead of music as one of their encore classes this year. Mrs. Wells is wonderful, but based on our child’s schedule, she will not really be receiving a well-rounded encore class experience in 7th grade. I was not in favor of making band a part of the school day, but didn’t make too much noise about the decision. I understand the theory behind it. I also don’t want to become ridiculously annoying about this issue either. – just bothers me that kids with any special needs, Ed. Requirements, etc. receive schedule changes all the time. Too bad the EZ, “do it all w/o making noise” kids don’t receive the same accommodation. Such an EZ switch- 1 kid, (take her out of music, put her into art during encore) cannot be accomplished.
Dear Heidi,
Thank you very much for reading the blog and for taking the time to reply! I truly value your thoughts and insights; and as you know we are clearly in a “change mode” this year. I promise you that we are not only listening and observing, but we are analyzing our plans and our decisions to see what the impacts are. I cannot guarantee any modifications or amendments before we try it out, but I can assure you that the whole system is engaged in finding multiple ways to meaningfully engage ALL kids in all classes. Please continue to keep the communication lines open.
Sincerely,
Mike