Developing a Vision for your School

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

I received quite a bit of feedback on my last post, Top 5 Mistakes Literacy Coaches Make. There were many questions about the #2 mistake, Lack of Vision.  I have to admit.  I made this mistake before, myself.  Once I realized that I was the reading LEADER of the school, I knew I had to do things drastically different in order to effect the most change in the school I possibly could.  

There are so many resources to help you develop your vision.  Don't just look at educational books.  Google "Developing Your Vision."  I did and got 142,000,000 results!  Take a look at the wealth of information in the field of business.  There are so many books about creating your vision.  Whatever you do, read up on it.  I follow a few steps to developing my vision as the literacy coach of my school.  I break them down into these steps:

Your vision will maintain your focus.  We all know how many new initiatives get thrown at us and how many quick fix solutions outsiders (and insiders) try to get us to start in our schools.  These are all fine and dandy, but the most effective solution to any initiative is fidelity.  If you know where your school is and where they need to go, then you will know exactly which of these initiatives will work for your school.

My next posts will focus on each of these steps.  How has your vision influenced your school?  Have you seen big changes because of your focus?