Page 15 - Leadership Matters monthly magazine template January 2013
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Message from IASA President Dr. Robbins
Happy New Year! If you are reading this edition of the newly revamped IASA newsletter
Leadership Matters, it means that the Mayan calendar doomsday prediction of the world
ending on December 21, 2012 was wrong. Phew! The good news is we all woke up on
December 22. The bad news is that we didn’t escape whatever problems and worries
we faced on December 21. They are all still with us as we begin 2013.
When we come to work each morning, those worries involve education reform,
pension reform, evaluation systems, achievement gaps, labor disputes, school board
elections, budget woes, students’ home lives, and so on. When we get home each
night, those problems might include health issues, marital discord, aging parents, rebellious children, financial
struggles . . . the list is endless, and it could all easily become overwhelming.
So how do we get up every day to do our jobs, tend to our students, our staff members, our Board members,
our colleagues, our friends, and our families, with no guarantee that 2013 will be any easier than 2012? Where
do we find the resolve to keep fighting the good fight? More importantly, how do we as leaders model traits we
want our employees and students to have, like resilience, a positive spirit, strength and courage in the face of
adversity, grace under pressure?
Quite simply, I think it’s a choice we make every day. We all know that life doesn’t magically get better if
today’s problems are solved; new challenges will inevitably replace the old ones. The key to coping with it all is
choosing how we react.
Bottom line, it’s our choice the extent to which we allow our current set of problems to define our level of
happiness and satisfaction. We control our choice. And the act of choosing is empowering.
So as 2013 begins, I choose to make the same New Year’s resolutions I make every year:
•
to provide the best possible educational opportunities for my students,
•
to provide the best possible working environment for my staff members,
•
to model positive traits and strength of character for my students and staff,
•
and, most importantly, to choose happiness and gratitude in my professional and personal life.
Whatever your own resolutions may be for 2013, I wish you a Happy New Year!
various student growth models including
advantages and disadvantages of each. The
second part of this training will be a two-day
workshop designed for a team of educators from
your school district to develop a plan to bring
back to your district for implementation of student
growth for principal and teacher evaluation.
Despite the difficult challenges facing public
education, you as the educational leaders in your
district and your community still have the ability to
chart the best possible course for your students.
Professional development can be a major asset in
developing and implementing a plan, and IASA is
committed to serving you in that way.
I will be a regular
contributor to this new
monthly
newsletter,
but I also write a
weekly
“New
Superintendents’
Update”
that
has
gotten
positive
feedback from veteran superintendents. If you
would like to receive them on a regular basis, you
can click
to sign up. You can also view my
Educational Leadership Thoughts on my blog at
Best wishes for a successful 2013!
(Continued from page 10)
Voltz Column
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Dr. Kathryn Robbins
