A lot of people have asked me about my “career path”, and most of them are surprised that my answer doesn’t include getting into administration. They often seem a little deflated as though administration is obviously the ultimate goal for any ambitious, moderately capable teacher.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m very impressed by the obvious work ethic, ambition, self-confidence, and determination of those young administrators out there (and the not so young ones, Dad). I’ve met many of them and I’m convinced they’re in it for the right reasons and they feel very strongly about their abilities to impact student achievement. I just don’t think that that’s the only way to have an impact in education.

I haven’t completely figured out what I want to be doing as a teacher ten years from now, but I do know that it will involve being in the classroom. I’d like to do my masters, I’d like to write, do some action research. . . . I have lots of ambition, and to prove it, here is my ultimate goal: I want to be a exemplary teacher. I want to be a rock star among teachers. I want to be the kind of teacher about whom other teachers will say “Oh, go ask her. She’s an awesome teacher.” I want to be a really good teacher.

Quite frankly, I don’t think it gets more ambitious than that.

It’s tempting.

It’s also INSANE!

So I’ve decided to set some priorities for next year, and I’m following the model that my friend Kevin shared with me, that he learned from a speaker in his Master’s class. This person held up one hand and said that he was so busy he decided that he would have five priorities (Get it? Five fingers? Five priorities. I guess you only get to have six priorities if you’re the bad guy who killed Inigo Montoya’s father, in which case you’re going to die anyway so…) not just for work, but for your life. If something doesn’t fit one of those priorities you have to say no. Easier said than done, but I’ll give it a try. I just need to figure out what my priorities are.

Well first of all, it seems important to me to make sure that my relationships with my family and friends should be at the top of my priority list.

Then health. That can be physical, mental, and spiritual.

Yikes! That only leaves three left for professional priorities!

All right, well we all know that I want to find ways to bring more web 2.0 into the classroom even if I don’t have a beautiful shiny wifi Apple-sponsored computer lab (But seriously, that would be amazing).

Two left!

Assessment and Evaluation: No big surprise there. I want to continue to refine my understanding of good assessment and evaluation practices and how to bring together the ideal and the reality in order to support students. I like this one because it encompasses a lot of other things that I’m passionate about.

One left! Well people keep asking me what my ultimate goal is in this profession. Do I want to go into admin? Do I want to go back to the board office? Do I want to go to grad school? For now, I’ve decided that my ultimate goal is to be a really really good teacher. To some people that may not sound like a terribly ambitious goal, but it is to me. I think it’s easy to become complacent in this profession. I think that you have to keep pushing yourself to get better and to continue to see yourself as a learner. I never want to have the attitude that “I’ve been doing this for 20 years; there’s nothing new anyone can tell me about teaching.”  So my fifth priority is to view myself as a professional learner. That may sound a bit too vague but I know what it means.

So that’s it for now. I may come back and revise these later. Do you have any priorities or goals for next year?