10 Thoughts for a Meaningful School Year
By: Nathan Eklund, M.Ed, Senior Education Consultant August 27, 2010
1.If you’re going to take care of students, you need to take care of yourself.
Being in good health can’t be something that only happens on vacations and weekends. You need to spend time every day making sure that you’re taking good care of yourself so that you can take care of others.
2.Parents and teachers are each other’s best allies.
You only see your students a few hours out of their day. The rest of the time, they’re in the hands of other adults. Unless you’re on the same page with families, kids can slip through the cracks.
3.You like kids. Remember that at the root of things, you chose your profession because you like kids.
As the pressures and strains of the year naturally occur, make time each day to simply enjoy being around young people.
4.You might be the only positive adult in a young person’s life.
On any given day at any given time, you might be the very adult that gives a young person exactly what he or she needs to get through that day.
5.Sleep is not an optional activity.
Remember in midsummer when you woke up from a great night’s sleep and you felt ready to tackle the world? Remember that? Just sayin’…
6.The smallest efforts have a big payoff.
Take an extra moment to help a student understand a lesson. Offer a colleague a sincere compliment. Speak up when you see a parent providing support for school success. Sometimes your fleeting moments of thoughtfulness stick with people for years.
7.Are you having fun yet?
Yes, working with young people is serious business. There’s a lot at stake. But remember, too, that your job can be amazingly fun and funny. Don’t forget to laugh daily.
8.Put relationships first.
Spending time with your friends and family should not be seasonal activities. They miss you. And what about positive relationships with students? Slow down and make room for “human time.” You’ll all look back on this year and remember the relationships that mattered, not the test scores you achieved.
9.Learn something new today.
When is the last time you took a class or read for pleasure? Lifelong learning isn’t something we suggest to students. It’s something we model for students.
10.Do something today that reminds you why you chose to work with youth in the first place.
You didn’t choose this work because you wanted to go to meetings or to get caught up in the thousands of administrative details. You went into it for a reason. What was that original reason? And what are you going to today to connect you with that reason? Stop reading this list and go do it!
Being in good health can’t be something that only happens on vacations and weekends. You need to spend time every day making sure that you’re taking good care of yourself so that you can take care of others.
2.Parents and teachers are each other’s best allies.
You only see your students a few hours out of their day. The rest of the time, they’re in the hands of other adults. Unless you’re on the same page with families, kids can slip through the cracks.
3.You like kids. Remember that at the root of things, you chose your profession because you like kids.
As the pressures and strains of the year naturally occur, make time each day to simply enjoy being around young people.
4.You might be the only positive adult in a young person’s life.
On any given day at any given time, you might be the very adult that gives a young person exactly what he or she needs to get through that day.
5.Sleep is not an optional activity.
Remember in midsummer when you woke up from a great night’s sleep and you felt ready to tackle the world? Remember that? Just sayin’…
6.The smallest efforts have a big payoff.
Take an extra moment to help a student understand a lesson. Offer a colleague a sincere compliment. Speak up when you see a parent providing support for school success. Sometimes your fleeting moments of thoughtfulness stick with people for years.
7.Are you having fun yet?
Yes, working with young people is serious business. There’s a lot at stake. But remember, too, that your job can be amazingly fun and funny. Don’t forget to laugh daily.
8.Put relationships first.
Spending time with your friends and family should not be seasonal activities. They miss you. And what about positive relationships with students? Slow down and make room for “human time.” You’ll all look back on this year and remember the relationships that mattered, not the test scores you achieved.
9.Learn something new today.
When is the last time you took a class or read for pleasure? Lifelong learning isn’t something we suggest to students. It’s something we model for students.
10.Do something today that reminds you why you chose to work with youth in the first place.
You didn’t choose this work because you wanted to go to meetings or to get caught up in the thousands of administrative details. You went into it for a reason. What was that original reason? And what are you going to today to connect you with that reason? Stop reading this list and go do it!
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