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“Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”
– Jim Rohn

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Every day I think of myself as working to be a leader for my students, my family, my friends, my co- workers and more. Stepping back and thinking about the knowledge and action I need to take to excel in the future as a leader stopped me right in my tracks to think about what I am ACTUALLY doing now and what I WANT to be doing in the future to really take action with my future. As you can see from my title, my number one goal in life personally and professionally is to always work to be a passionate learner in everything that I do and a positive leader as well. To break down my overall big and broad goal into three focused goals is where the real thinking came into play. Being a leader is something that has always come naturally to me. Coming from a very large family of big personalities, you had to think fast, and hold your ground, to get a word in edge wise. Taking this leadership quality in my personal life has naturally flowed over into my professional life. Through this essay you will read the specific ways I intend to take action to follow through towards these goals.

 

 

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.

When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.  

– Jack Welch, former GE chairman and CEO

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I chose to focus my goals around working to become a stronger teacher leader in ways such as piloting new programs within my district, sharing out and running staff meetings to show co-workers what is going on in my room, and offering up support in any new learning taking place. I also want to make my classroom an open door such as sharing out my work with Seesaw. This is something I chose as an important goal because I do this naturally with my three other co-workers in kindergarten, but it is time to broaden my scope and lead and learn from others in a larger leadership role. Setting this in motion with my principal including setting up workshops for my staff to join me, staff meetings to walk others through my process and begin “doing,” is a powerful forward movement I am ready to begin.

 

 

“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future.

You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with

 the unfamiliar and the unknown.”

- Denis Waitley

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Secondly, my second goal lines up with my first in a broader sense in running a session at the MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference. Their mission statement is igniting learning through meaningful collaboration and innovation. I have been attending the past few years and was asked to share out at a session with other colleagues around the state but have not yet taken the leap to present. Taking the next steps to leading in this more vulnerable situation will allow me to grow as a leader with my presentation skills as well as make exciting and deeper connections with others around the state leading and innovating with technology. This is a powerful opportunity to grow in this form of leadership in a situation I have not experiences as well as an enormous learning experience through connecting with educators all around.

 

 

“Providing every student with a path to academic success requires a revolution in what we do.”

-Jeffery Benson

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Lastly, I want to grow in my knowledge and abilities with creating a personalized learning environment in my classroom and grow and lead for this learning in other classrooms around the district.  This is very important to me because of my chosen profession of teaching kindergarten. As public school districts around the country are getting rid of young fives and preschool programs, parents are sending their children to school with no school experience and many times at the age of four, with a planned action of having their child repeat kindergarten. On the other hand, we have students coming in at six years old with preschool and even young fives experience at a completely different academic and socially developmental level than their peers. This creates a gap that is widening each and every year. The gap currently does not seem to close as these students move up in grades. I have experienced some new learning with flipped classrooms, project based learning models through my master’s program, but diving further into this and trying out these strategies in my room is an important goal of mine.

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To conclude all of this forward thinking for my future learning goals, I truly believe these are attainable. All three goals connect and link to my overall focus of continuing to lead and learn in technology innovation in and out of the classroom, growing my connections, and expanding my community of learners network. As I move forward and my MAET program comes to an end, I will remember: think forward, never backwards, learning, growing, and changing to be the best innovator, learner, and leader I can be.