Ummmm.....

Learning to Grow

I had my annual evaluation today, and boy did I learn alot. Overall, it was a very successful year, and I had the good fortune to glean quite a few valuable lessons from my supervisors, coworkers, students, peers, and other mentors. While I'm fully aware that there is plenty more growth to come in my future, I once again find myself falling in love with the cycle that defines this job: you work for a while, evaluate, and get to start all over again. This time I'll be starting with a new facility, new staff, new communities, a new supervisor, and other novelties; but the lessons from this past year must remain in the forefront of my mind. As it was said today: don't change who I am, but work on defining myself as the professional. Words to live by, if there ever were.

So then, here are the pieces I intend to work on over the next year. I'm going to plaster them in all kinds of obvious places: office, emails, around the home, in my phone's reminders, etc. I find that my most consistent methods of improvement result when I literally bombard myself in a message, theme, or idea. And this idea? Growth.

1. I've fallen into the buddy-buddy trap, and it's time to climb out. I've got a fresh start to work on my ability to be authoritative, professional, and "distanced" in a sense. Now that I've found a life and activities outside of work (thanks to my wonderful derby community and lovely girlfriend) I'm hoping that this distance comes naturally. The more active component, however, is going to depend largely on my consistency... not just from person-to-person, but more day-to-day. How am I consistently sending the right messages with my words and actions? How am I demonstrating authority and credibility while not seeming unapproachable? These are new balances I want (and need) to master.
2. Explore my creative side. I've looked at the amazing programs and events that staff across campus have put on, and I find myself intimidated. I'm no art major, but I know that some intentional time spent developing my "ideas and questions" for my students will help serve them in the long run. More purposefully asking deliberate questions ("have you considered xyz?" or "what's the community implications of this?") will enable my students to see the bigger picture, help bring clarity to our efforts, and in turn better communicate our messages to the community at large. I'll bring my own flair to publications, bulletin boards, door decs, etc. but ultimately I want to find ways to encourage that deliberate, creative thought in my students and staff.
3. Make every engagement educational, and redefine what is academic. If I'm holding a 2 hour staff meeting, it had better be a meaningful, engaging two hours. It should involve outside materials and presenters, opportunities for people to voice their input and lead sessions, etc. Using this intentionality as the example, I need to assist my staff in forming Educational Interactions (intentionally capital EI) to better fulfill the mission of why we're here.

These are lofty goals, but should certainly be attainable. The one deciding factor in these efforts will be ME. Am I devoting enough time to planning? Am I properly invested in my students, their development, etc.? Am I creating the proper environment for this learning to occur? I can only hope that a blog post one year from now will confirm these efforts, and that I'll continue to learn to grow.