Here we are at the start of a new year, on the precipice of a new decade, and that always gets me thinking about where I’m headed in the next year. I’ve spent a good part of this blissfully long vacation in one of two personal modes: contemplation or de-cluttering (my mind, my stuff, my schedule).  And while I am awful at resolutions and will avoid making any here, here is what I see as professional priorities for 2010:

• Continuing to promote student-centered, inquiry-based learning at school. It’s hard, but it’s non-negotiable.
• Continuing to think about what the pre-service school librarians in my adjunct classes need to have in their toolkits to be successful in this era. More time on leadership and the Big Picture, less time on the small, procedural things that have defined us in the past. I continually think about how to scaffold the Big Picture so that it can be grabbed and adopted by students, not seen as too abstract to be workable.  Our incoming school librarians need a progressive vision, and sometimes, that’s different from What We’ve Always Done and Prioritized.
• Thinking more reflectively about my work. Practicing what I preach about the need for metacognitive work.
• In my afternoon work with staff throughout our elementary schools, I’m acutely aware of times when an educator’s mission and practice are not consistent.  Sometimes, even when we know what best practice is, we don’t implement it, for various reasons. I’m hyper-aware of my own continual work aligning my vision and my practice.
• Continuing to learn from others, both in-person and via online PLNs.
• Balance.

How about you?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 1:53 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.