my mission...

so what is my mission?

i've been part of the discussions for the mission of the school district, my church, my curriculum area. but what is my mission?

i've been challenged recently to identify my personal goals. how can we know if we meet our goals if we do not identify them?

i understand that in my personal life - i ignore it but i understand it. i have new year's resolutions, goal lists, to do lists and lists of those lists. rarely do i actually finish them - actually complete what i set out to do. but, that's my personal life and i can just ignore that...what about my professional life?

so i start the week with lesson plans - those are my goals - right? is that the same as a mission? no - if i live only by the lesson plans i can be blown this way and that without really honing in on what i need to accomplish. so what drives that? is it test scores? does ITBS or Map testing make my decisions for me? or is it the gut feeling of a 20 year veteran?

i think that's part of the problem of education today...instead of really hanging on to the one goal that will affect all of our teaching we grab on to way to many strands and just hold on for dear life - not really knowing where they will lead us - and not always caring either. just get us through.

i don't want to be that teacher. instead i want to identify my mission. why am i here in this place in this time with this group of students? what type of change do i hope to affect?

hmmmm.....

my mission is to....it should just trip off my tongue - improve reading scores, teach the multiplication tables...

but that isn't my mission...my mission is to connect with the students in my classroom so they will be challenged to be more than they were when they walked through my door. that means being more of a student, more of a reader, more of a mathematician, more of a historian, more of a techie and most importantly more of a human being.

if i embrace that as my mission - every other part of my day and my interaction with students lines up...

hmmmm.....
is that my mission???