Written by Mark Hitri.

Photo by James Creange.

Week 2

There are no stupid questions.

One of the things that I must tell our students all of the time is to ask questions. Even though there are no stupid questions, it is important to ask the right questions. For me to exemplify excellence for our students, I ask myself questions based on The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner. They are:

1. Am I prepared? Lesson, lecture and lab

2. How did it go? Curriculum, equipment, and students

3. What’s next? Tomorrow and beyond.

4. Teamwork: Did I lend a hand?

5. Respect: Did I show any to students and coworkers?

6. Learning: What lessons where there for me?

7. Continuous Improvement: How am I getting better in my skills and teaching?

8. Student focus: What is the feedback?

I have these questions posted in the front of my lesson plan folder and I look at them daily. The key to these questions is to answer them honestly. Am I always prepared, respectful or learning? If I am honest the answer is no but I need to keep asking myself them and answer as truthfully as I can to be able to exemplify excellence for our students. What questions are you asking yourself?