TL;DR:

• Understand your locus of control to make positive changes in education.
• Build a case for resource and training improvements in your school.
• Avoid negativity and find supportive colleagues for a successful teaching career.

What Is Within Your Locus of Control?

Often in schools, if you’re in a teacher position, you’re often in a position of feeling like you don’t have a huge influence on what is happening at the building level. You may be a department chair or grade-level team lead and want to influence others to make positive changes. Depending on your job title and level of influence, you can tap into the influence you do have on the administration or on the principal. You may be working in a school where staff work in silos. Depending on the effectiveness of your principal and leadership team, know what is within your locus of control.

Listen to podcasts, attend conferences, and read blogs and professional publications on the topics and areas of concern that you’re challenged with this year. Click To Tweet

Build a Case

Let’s say your department lacks proper funding, or several teaching positions were never filled and are being filled by long-term subs. You may not have all the resources you need and the teachers may not be properly trained. What time can you help develop and coach the newer (or substitute) teachers? Does your building have a coaching model? How do PLCs function? Are there clear expectations of the PLC model, implementation, and outcome in your building?

Ignore the Negativity

All too often, if you’re in a teacher leader position, you may be the person teachers on your team tend to vent to. While some teachers tend to vent every so often others may complain about every little thing. Don’t let another person’s negativity bring you down. Focus on what you can control to find a solution to their problem and if you have helped them with the problem and they still complain about it, be a listening ear. But don’t focus too much on how it may affect your practice. The same goes for negative teacher talk in the staff lounge or hallways after school. There may be many disgruntled staff about a problem that is beyond your control. Listen if you wish, but don’t join the bandwagon or “negative Nellys.”

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Find Colleagues Who Will Support You

You likely have colleagues who are in your corner who you can lean on for support. Whether you’re having a great year or there are struggles, being able to provide a listening ear to those in need or to be able to have a trusted colleague to get feedback from is essential.

Join a Teacher’s Online Network

If you don’t feel like there are colleagues in your building you can reach out to for support, join a professional organization, a Facebook group, Twitter chat, Mastermind, or another group outside your district where you can find others who will offer up advice.

Listen to podcasts, attend conferences, and read blogs and professional publications on the topics and areas of concern that you’re challenged with this year. There are likely to be answers where you search—even here on the Teach Better site, under blogs or podcasts!

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About Dana Goodier

Dr. Dana Goodier has 23 years of experience in education. She has taught World Languages and English and worked as a middle school administrator. She completed her doctorate degree (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership early 2020. For her dissertation, she researched reasons parents were opting their students out of high-stakes testing at middle schools and how that affected the district accreditation rating.

She often speaks at conferences, providing educators with techniques to minimize off-task behavior and to increase time on task. Goodier is the host of the “Out of the Trenches” podcast, which features educators who share their stories of resiliency. She is also the author of the book, “Out of the Trenches: Stories of Resilient Educators.”

Follow her on Twitter @danagoodier and visit her website at: www.danagoodier.com