Your Own Personal Mission Statement
by Antonio
Last week I attended the “Meaningful Faculty Evaluation” workshop given by ISM in Philadelphia. For those of you who are not familiar with MFE, it is a process of engaging faculty through conversations and personal growth that is intended to strip away the focus and obsession with weaknesses and focus on what teachers are good at. Now I know that many of my administrator colleagues are thinking “Wait a minute, what about those teachers that need to improve on X, Y or Z?” It’s all there, trust me. And if you haven’t had a chance to check it out, you should.
But the purpose of this post is not to focus on MFE as an evaluation tool but rather on one small, very simple exercise that lives within it that caught my attention. It was, in fact a very zen like exercise when I stepped back for a moment and reflected on its purpose and outcome.
At the very start of the MFE process, teachers are asked the following question “Other than making a living, why this, now with my life?”
Go ahead. Take a minute and re-read it.
Thought provoking to say the least and applicable to not only those of us in the field of education but just about everyone out there who has seemingly struggled with the question of why am I doing this work? It can be at times a challenging, thankless, exhausting exercise to wake up every morning and ask yourself that question. And you should. We all should. It is simply not enough to be working in education as a means to an income or 3 month summer vacation.
My last post focused on how I personally reflect on the year that has just ended, and it seems only fitting that I would follow that up with a post that looks upon the start of this new “year” by sharing my own personal mission statement with all of you.
“Antonio Viva exists to provide mindful leadership, raise a thoughtful, caring and successful son and reshape the world, one creative thinker at a time.”
Consider sharing/writing your own!
Photo Credit: ambergris