12 Things Good (People) believe

courtesy of my blog: http://cjferrara.blogspot.com/

A Blogger on http://www.choralnet.com/ copied this from a blogger at the Harvard Business Review . The article was called "The 12 Things Good Bosses Believe." The choralnet blogger changed it slightly to be what Choir Directors believe. I will choose to apply it to what Teachers believe. They are as follows. The bold is Robert Sutton's words, the rest is my reflection on them.

The 12 Things Good Teachers Believe
1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to be in my class. It's happened to me often. I expect that a group of 7th graders ought to be able to do this. I mean, I can do this! It's easy! I'm also 40 and 18 years out of school. I think I need to find ways of simply being a choir member, to remind myself of that side of the experience.

2. My success — and that of my students — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods. Or as Kung Fu Panda put it... there is no secret ingredient. Strangely, the manner in which administrators and government choose to "reform" education is by offering this new, innovative, brilliant method which will be implemented immediately or you're fired. Education reform is easy. Get rid of truly bad teachers. Get politicians out of school administration and Boards of Ed. And parents, do your freakin' job as parents! Most importantly, don't be terrified of students failing. Grades need to accurately reflect student performance. If students don't do anything, and they still pass, then THAT'S where schools fail. In short, Public education works, stop messing with it.

3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my class to make a little progress every day. Long term goals are just that, Long Term. Do your job, day to day, and don't screw up.

4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough. That's a big one. Can't be a pushover, but also shouldn't be a dick.

5. My job is to serve as a human shield, to protect my class from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every stripe — and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well. I'm taking this role VERY seriously this year. Negativity is simply not allowed in my classroom. If you're going to discourage my students in any way, I'm going to need to take you out.

6. I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong. In conductor's terms, If I screw up, all of you need to screw up as well. I'll happily accept responsibility for cuing you incorrectly. But if I'm there for you, you need to watch and follow. It's on me to be correct.

7. I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong — and to teach my students to do the same thing. Never was it put more clearly than this. I heard it both ways in my legendary and tumultuous career. I heard, "Be true to yourself," which made me arrogant. Others said, "But Carl, you're not perfect, and you're usually wrong, so let others tell you how to improve," and that made me a wuss, dependent on others to make your decisions for me, and allowing me to compromise what I KNOW to be correct. Again, a balance must be struck between the two.

8. One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is "what happens after people make a mistake?" Students don't need you to do it for them. They need to be trained to do it themself. I have an annoying and not helpful habit of singing along with me choir. That makes them dependent on me. I need to stop that. My dream, my goal, to have a group of students who, when I'm not around, will go into a practice room and sing their parts themselves.

9. Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my class to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too. 'Nuff said.

10. Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive. While I disagree with this statement; I prefer to believe that good will overcome all; I will rephrase... Bad is more seductive and tempting than good. A choir member once asked me, "Mr. F, wouldn't it be better if we all just sang the melody?" I responded, "No, it would be easier, and would require less thinking, but it wouldn't be better."

11. How I do things is as important as what I do.  It's not what you say, it's how you say it. Example, "She had a crack baby." Or. "She had a crack, Baby!" - Zach Galifinakis

12. Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it. But I like power! But yes, I'm a role model. Careful the things you say, Children will Listen. (Sondheim) They'll forget what you said, and what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.

Such is my goal for this year. Be a better leader, and have a more fun time in school.