#7 and #8

#7
   How hard have you worked on yourself in comparison to your job?

I believe that working on yourself, and working hard at your job goes hand in hand to create


a positive learning environment as well as being a confident, and successful individual. It is 


a true statement for me,to say that if you are not happy, others that are in your charge 

cannot learn from you at their full potential, nor can you be a leader at your true potential. Having a clear understanding your own strengths and weaknesses is an on-going learning process that requires continual thorough self-evaluation and reflection. When in a leadership role this self-awareness is even more important, and there are many qualities that a successful, strong leader must possess. One key quality that I believe represents an effective leader is being organized and positive. I have to work on being organized every day. Having a positive attitude and creating an engaged and creative working environment can help motivate staff to have the same effect on their students and with each other. Having a creative outlook has helped me in all facets of my life, including my ability to work effectively with students, staff, and parents. This is true as well as in my own personal educational path. 
Creativity fuels me.
As a leader it is my job to create this organized and creative environment for the students or future teachers I am leading. Being in the teaching profession for 15 years and counting, I can say that I have started to work on myself much more in the past 5 years, than I ever have before. I might be able to say that I owe this intense self improvement to my daughter, who is now 5 years old. I knew it was important to keep improving myself for her, as well as improving my teaching.

My suggestions for others would be:

• Find your voice
• Know your limits, but strive to surpass them
• See situations from other views than your own
• Never stop learning
• Challenge yourself

#8
"Risk"

1. -Wikipedia says:
2. Risk is the potential of losing something of value. Values (such as physical health, social status, emotional well being or financial wealth) can be gained or lost when taking risk resulting from a given action, activity and/or inaction, foreseen or unforeseen.
3. I took a quiz online to see If I take risks or not. It said I do not. 
4. I'm not sure If I believe this.
5.  I think I take risks everyday. I may not take risks in the stock market, or jump out of airplanes, and you might think that I'm underwhelmingly boring in my risk taking, but they are risks none the less.
6.  I get in my car everyday, I eat strange foods, I change a lesson plan in a matter of milliseconds because there is a fire drill, or someone pukes, it's a nice day outside, and I want to change the learning environment, I'm around art materials.
7. Risks happen in a school lock-down, a fight, or a school wide RTI assignment that I may or may not have forgotten about. All these things are risks. All these scenarios could fail miserably, and then I have to take another risk to try to remedy the situation. 
8. In education and being a leader in the classroom or the building, you must take a certain amount of risk. People take risks. Small or large.
9. I've been reading The Jossey-Bass Reader on Educational Leadership and his is my take on Chapter 17 "Risk". 
10.  by Michael Fullan
11. The anxiety that students go through before they ask their teacher to take a risk, or a teacher asking their principal, and principal asking their superintendent is the same “little dance” for all. To get permission to take that risk, is usually met with worried look, then, questioning,and finally the stall hoping it might go away. However the student, teacher, or principal that hasn’t forgotten is the one who takes that risk to fight for what they want.This chapter talks about how people take risks.
    It seems like a lot of work to want more from education when we are met with roadblocks. Nobody wants to look foolish or fail, so our culture is to be very cautious.We all wish for the response of “Let’s do it! Can I come along? If it doesn’t work out we’ll share the responsibility.”(pg, 289)
    We have to try to be OK with being able to say “I failed, but I learned something, and I will do better next time.” Or Being able to say “I don’t know.”
    There is growth in failure.”The educator who wishes to build a school culture in which risk taking is prominent can exercise no greater influence than by taking risks himself.”(pg. 293)
    When incorporating change, one must not do it radically, or your ideas could implode. Be ready for how much you are willing to risk.
12. 
    
“Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for.”-Earl Warren
13. The trouble is, if you don't risk anything,you risk everything."- Carl Jung