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Don't Bring All That Baggage From School Into Your Winter Break
Michael Iannini, Founder, MiddleLeader.com
As you prepare to break in the coming weeks, don't long for it as a break from the myriad of poorly articulated tasks and goals that have been thrown at you, or an escape from uncooperative colleagues. These beliefs form part of a self-narrative, the proverbial baggage, which will haunt you over the break. Sure, you can ignore it for the first part of the break, but as the break speeds to an end the anxiety will build, robbing you of the sorely needed refreshment your spirit needs.
Instead, use these remaining weeks to come together as a team, reaffirm your commitment to support each other, and address the 'elephants in the room' that are preventing you from realizing your 'moral purpose' as a teaching team. The last couple of months have been a tough slog and much of what we had hoped to accomplish by now we may feel has not materialized. But this isn't new. Even during ordinary times very little in the way of the transformative goals we set gets done before the mid-year breaks.
You might actually be more on track for achieving your goals than you realize, but you won't get this sorely needed vote of confidence unless you come together as a team and answer these 3 questions:
- What are we doing well as a team that we want to continue doing when we return from the break?
- What obstacles do we need to overcome so that we can devote more time to working interdependently to achieve our shared goals?
- When we return from the break, what should be our primary focus as a team?
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