Embrace "Now"

"Your now determines your next."

This is our school motto. We try to instill in our kids that every decision you make now has some kind of implication on you future. It teaches ownership and responsibility. Coming off seven years as an eighth grade teacher, I certainly embraced this motto as a freshman teacher last year and saw how important it was for our kids to truly understand. I have always been a huge proponent of modeling and teaching goal setting, both short term and long term. Sometimes my students would write their goals on index cards that we hung from the ceiling on colored string. Sometimes we would make a big poster of everyone's goals, handwritten and signed, as a reminder each day what they were working towards. Often, their short term goal would say: pass and go to high school. While that was my expectation for all of them, it was more of an accomplishment for some. For the last eight years of their schooling, each August is a fresh start, nothing from the previous year carries over. Suddenly, the first day of their freshman year is really the first day of a four year college or job application. Now they hear words like transcript and graduation plan and it slowly (for some, very slowly) starts to sink in that high school is a little different. What they do now determines the opportunities available to them next.

I truly believe that the most important lessons we teach our students are those that extend beyond the classroom. I taught middle school science and math, algebra, and geometry. None of those lessons were as important as the life lessons that I tried to instill in my students each and every day. Empathy. Grit. Compassion. Responsibility. Ownership. Courage. Kindness. Strength. Generosity. Integrity. Respect. Commitment. Ambition. It took about six months of teaching to realize that as I was teaching them, they were also teaching me and helping me grow in these lessons. 

I started a new position as a high school instructional coach about six months ago. Apparently I have a six month learning curve. It took until this morning, sitting in a church service, to make a very important revelation. My 'content' is now instructional strategies, but the most important lessons I 'teach' are the same. "Your now determines your next." I speak it on a daily basis to my students, but I don't speak it to my teachers... I should! 

Teaching is a unique profession in that while you are helping your students reach their goals, you are also working on some of your own. Our students may be convinced of the contrary, but our lives are not on hold from August until June. We don't have to wait until summer to cross things off our dream bucket list or make steps to achieving a goal. Instead of telling your students, show them. Live in your now.

No matter what your hopes, dreams, or goals are, short term and long term, professional and personal, public and private, what are you doing with your 'now' to get there?