Exchange Everyday
When I read the “Getting Unstuck” issue it made me focus on my career goal. Our school is going through accreditation and I actually just received our candidacy material. This process can be very overwhelming and especially since I feel as if I’m still just trying to find my way as being a director. It just so happened that I got this position the same time our school was up for renewal. This article talks about keeping your focus and setting goals. I am all about timelines and goals that was the first thing I had to learn. I’m not an organized person by nature and I have to work really hard at being organize and most times it can be very frustrating. Being a director organization can be the death of you and your program. I learned to write everything down, set timelines, goals, and keeping a calendar just to keep track of everything going on in my school.
It also mentioned to dream and not to let fear banish your dreams. I have to consciously do this because there are times where I find myself getting overwhelmed. If I start to think of what needs to be done and what we need to do, I can get overwhelmed and feel as if reaccredidation is almost impossible. I also feel that as a director, I need to emphasis the importance of accreditation but at the same time not to stress out my staff. My goal in life is not to be stressed, it’s hard but I do not see anything positive coming out of stress. It kind of reminds me of the mentality of crying doesn’t solve any of your problems. I’m not that extreme, I’m all about feeling emotions and expressing my emotions but there comes a point where you just have to suck it up and deal with it. So when I start to feel stressed, I remind myself to get cracking and do something about it.
The last point the article makes is to get moving. Ideas and creativity happens when you move your body. In an ideal word, I would love to be able to have time to do work, school, personal life and workout everyday of the week. Especially in December, it’s crazy and something has to be sacrificed. Exercise is important, it’s healthy way to let out frustration and stress, but I’m still waiting for the ideas to come in the middle of my workouts.
Wow it sounds like you really got your hands full. It is exactly things like this that makes me have such a respect for the director position. I know it is definitely a job that I would not want for myself. I do not think I could handle doing all the required work. It must have been especially difficult for you because you come in as things are getting all changed up. It is not like you just took over a smooth and already set operation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the importance of setting goals. Goals give you something to look forward to and can help you to stay on track by remembering what you are ultimately working towards. Also, yes, dreams are very important. Sometimes we may force ourselves to dream smaller or give up on our dreams because we may not be able to fulfill them the way we want to. It is important to persevere no matter what gets in the way. Exercise is great especially if you have the energy to get up and do it in the first place.
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteOrganization and stress -- are they the expected part of the administrator's job? Or are these elements just part of the traditional role of the administrator? If the administrator's role is rethought, does organization and stress disappear or does it take on a new form in the rethinking of an administrator? All of this is making me think of how administration can change and move away from traditional ideas. What do you think?
Jeanne
Aloha, I can sympathize with you on your coming endeavers. We also just got re-accredited and it was a very long and stressful event. But as you stated if you can organize your thoughts, and actions. Put everything into perspective and take one day at a time, things will be fine and work out for the best.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about the accreditation and something that came to mind was, would we not be considered as having a "quality" school if we were never accredited? Is it NAEYC who deems us as "quality?" We did and continue to do the same things now as in the past whether we were accredited or not. So is it a statis thing, a paper thing, or a choices that we make everyday as teachers, what we provide for the children, continuing on with our educational goals and being child-centered and child-led that makes us that help to make schools "quality." Or someone coming to our school to observe, look through 10 portfolios, check files, for a day that deems us as "quality?"
Anyway good-luck and don't stress out, it's not good for to be stressed.