Whether you’re a teacher or school leader, the end of the year is a good time to evaluate what you’ve been doing this year. And whether it was all worth it.
I reckon the best way to tackle that is simply to compare the effort against return. In other words, what bang did you get for your buck?
This is a slightly different conversation to simply looking at impact because sometimes a small positive impact is nice … but still not worth the investment of time and energy you poured into it.
Try working through these four questions about any program, project, initiative or approach:
- When I was starting, how much time and effort did I think this would cost me?
- When I was starting, how much impact did I think this was going to have?
- How much time and effort did I actually put in?
- How much impact did it actually have?
Now forget the numbers and just run the happiness test. If you’re not happy with the return of impact for your investment of time and effort – you should consider ending that program, project, initiative or approach.
Your school doesn’t need you being a hero by flogging yourself in 2024 and beyond trying to revive a dead duck.
You deserve better. Your students deserve better. And your heroic efforts are better invested in a different future opportunity.
Keep fighting that good fight,
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