Attitude is Everything

What is the difference between people who are stagnant versus people who are growing? What is the difference between people who accomplish goals and people who are too afraid to even set them?

In observing teachers, leaders, students, and staff members in education over the last 15 years, I've noticed that people with a positive attitude get significantly further; further in professional achievements, further in building relationships, further in overall personal satisfaction.

Positive people are ones who others are naturally attracted to. They make you feel better by just being around them. You leave them with hope and renewed determination. On the other hand, negative people leave you feeling down, depressed, and hopeless. Which would you rather be? Which are you?

As Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right."

The most successful teams I've seen are those that are made up of a mix of positive people and practical people. They don't, however, put up with excessive negativity and complaining. They understand that kind of behavior is toxic to team dynamics. If your team is stuck in this rut, I'd like to suggest creating a list of norms together. Your team would review these norms before every meeting and gently steer people away from unwanted behavior by bringing attention back to the norms when needed. Examples of norms are: stay focused on current topic, be solution oriented, no put downs, and active participation by all.

I hope that in my interactions you all, you would consider my attitude to be a positive one. I try very hard, and will continue to try to model seeing the bright side of things and having a "can do" attitude. I attempt to embody this quote by Bruce Lee, "You have choice, you are master of your attitude. Choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success."

Until next time... let your light shine!

Comments

Digital Leadership - Chapter 11: Discovering Opportunity

I just joined the Castleberry ISD team as ELA Director a week and a few days ago, so I’m a little behind in the Digital Leadership game. I’m going to dive right in and absorb everything I can. Unfortunately, in my last positions and districts all things technology were mostly buzz words with no real training about how to use it best. That being said, I am thankful to start learning how to really be involved in digital leadership and am excited about the opportunity to learn with my colleagues. My first task is to read chapter 11 of Digital Leadership by Eric Sheninger and blog about it. This is my first blog, so be kind to me! The title of the chapter is “Discovering Opportunity” and the first thing I did was flip through to see what the subtitles. I found things like, “strategic partnerships”, “university partnerships”, “intraschool partnerships”, and “corporate/community partnerships”. Immediately I made a connection to the communit...

3 Important Aspects of Independent Reading

In Elementary classes this year, we have made Read to Self (Independent Reading) a priority. We know from decades of research that one of the simplest and most effective way to increase reading skills is to increase the amount of time students spend reading. We have no control of how much our students read at home, but we are able to give them opportunities to read at school. In grades Kindergarten through 5th grade, students are building stamina in independent reading. By the time students are in the middle of third grade, we hope to have them really engaged in independent reading for 20 minutes per day. I hope that in Middle School and High School we can find creative ways to carve out independent reading time as well. Time Matters Check this graphic out to see the correlation between the minutes a student reads and his/her achievement on standardized tests: ...

Monitoring without Coaching is a Culture Killer

Picture this... 10:07 am - John Monitor notices smoke in the forest behind his house. 10:10 am - John walks into the forest and sees fire, about 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. He snaps a picture on his phone and goes back inside. 10:20 am - John goes back into the forest and sees the fire, which has gotten a little bit larger and snaps another picture of it. He even tells the fire, "You are getting bigger. You shouldn't do that." Then he goes back inside. 10:45 am - John goes back to the fire and sees that it's about 15 feet by 5 feet. In awe, he uses his phone to take a video and tells the fire once again how big it is and that it really needs to snuff itself out. 11:00 am - The fire is in John's backyard. John records the fire, providing of a narrative of what is happening and why it should stop spreading. Now Consider This ... This scenario reminds me of what happens when campus and district leaders spend so much time monitoring that very lit...

Reflections by Estillette

Search This Blog