Justin Tarte is a blogger. He’s also an educator living in Arnold, Missouri, who has recently taken on the role of Assistant Principal at Popular Bluff Junior High School. Technology in education excites him, his yellow lab Maddy loves to give kisses, and he’s been to Germany five times. No, we’re not stalking him. We do however follow his tweets and his blog postings.
His December 22 blog, “Top 10 Questions To Ask Yourself in 2012” inspired us to think about some key questions administrators could ask themselves looking into the New Year. Here’s what we’ve come up with.
- What am I really passionate about? Am I doing that for a living? If I'm not, are there any small changes I could make to my job duties to incorporate my passions more directly?
- What are my professional goals for 2012? What are my goals for the next three years both professional and personal? Do I have a plan for reaching these goals?
- What am I doing very well? Where am I not seeing a lot of success? Do I know why? And, what steps can I take to keep doing what I do well, while making progress in the areas I don’t do well?
- What professional development resources will I be exploring in 2012? What expectations do I have for these? Do these relate to my goals, or are they just events or workshops that seem interesting?
- If I were to need to take an extended leave of absence, is there someone who could easily fill my role? If someone else in my department (or another key player such as scheduler, Financial Aid Officer, nurse, etc.) were to need to take a leave of absence do we have an emergency plan on how to handle the tasks and responsibilities? When is a good time to speak to my boss about our emergency plan?
- Do my co-workers know what expectations I have for them? Have they worked with me to set these goals?
- Do my employees and colleagues understand, accept, and embrace teamwork? Have I (or, can I) model(ed) the importance of working together in a team?
