Habit #7—Sharpening the Saw

3/5/2015

"Once you create the Garden, you now need to tend it”

To sharpen the saw involves tending to and maintaining your investments. Just like my garden project is a continuous cycle of improving the soil, replanting, tending to the growth of my plants my commitment to leadership is an investment. Here instead of gardening, I’m investing in myself. As a teacher and an instructional leader, this involves staying current in my practice, making sure the deposits I make are well-focused, and “staying on the edge of innovation.”

Sharpening the saw puts all of the habits together and brings us closer to becoming interdependent. But it is not the end of our leadership journey. To stay interdependent, we need to continue to focus on the habits we’ve developed and enhance them so that we can continue to accomplish our goals.

My commitment to Habit #7—Sharpening the Saw

Continue to revisit the habits I am developing.
Assess where I am at and what my next steps will be.
Revise my plan of action if needed.
Stay current in my instructional and leadership practices by continuing to read, research, collaborate, attend, and lead professional development.
Spend at least two hours a week “sharpening the saw”.

How I will teach Habit #7—Sharpening the Saw to others

Collaborate with colleagues to create meaningful and engaging lessons.
Enhance our technology professional development for next year with the use of Open Badges (collaborate with technology team and get “buy-in” from administrative team)
Continue my work with the pillars to build the “best school in the universe” (my own classroom, departmentally and in our horizontal teams, and as part of our WASC self-study process)
Review join commitments with my husband on how our joint habits are going and where we need to improve or revise (finance tracking plan, healthier lifestyle plan, and “getting things done”)
Next steps for AP World after the course and how skills developed can be continued next year

3 Comments

Bill

3/6/2015 06:18:59 am

Roxanne,
I like your commitment to spend two hours a week sharpening your saw. It doesn't sound like much but it is a very realistic goal. I often will even make appointments with myself in my calendar to "sharpen my saw". If it is in my calendar I can protect that time much better.

Raquel

3/12/2015 02:30:55 pm

Hi Roxanne,
I like your analogy of tending to your garden. I like that you are setting aside a specific time for sharpening the saw. What will you be doing, specifically, with your time? Jus curious. Your teaching habit 7 to others is so all encompassing. You do not leave anyone out. It seems that your sphere of influence is going through your work with the habits. Those around you are luck to have you since you are including them in your growth. Keep up the great work.

Roxanne Pompilio

3/12/2015 04:01:46 pm

Raquel,
Thanks for you kind reply. To be more specific in terms of what I am doing with my time for sharpening the saw, one of the things I do to stay current in my practice and on the edge of innovation is to routinely attend professional development related to interests or in my field. Recently, this has involved attending Common Core PDs in the areas of History-Social Science and English for both 7th and 10th grade, and attending technology PDs, like the one I attended last Tuesday on Safari Montage. This was a very innovative day! Although I'd been using Safari Montage for years, I learned that I can upload and edit videos within Safari Montage, as well as some other cool things. Prior to this, I'd only created playlists of videos they supplied and was not using it to its full potential. I plan to lead a workshop for interested teachers at my site. I also try to participate or involve myself in content related projects. For example, although this may have not been the best year to do this in terms of time, I agreed to assist as a teacher leader for the War Comes Home Project. This project is through UC Irvine and Cal Humanities and focuses on returning veterans. I'm assisting with the lessons on the Vietnam War and agreed to integrate lessons provided, present, and work with other teachers both in and outside of my district to assist with lessons and units. Most of this as taken place online this year. I also stay active with the World History Association and try to present at least every other year. Unfortunately, I've had to limit my workshops and PDs to national functions since 2010 due to my mother's stroke. Prior to this time, I would apply for grant opportunities and travel every other year to regions of interest either to present or to learn more about the content in order to enhance my teaching of World History. For example, I traveled to Morocco on a Fulbright and to China, both for AP World History. (My mom's stroke in 2010, which I have kept somewhat private from my participation in the M.A. program, limited my participation in many of these types of activities, and has limited my participation in leadership opportunities). I fly out usually once or twice a month to relieve care-givers, provide assistance, visits, etc. Not as much recently because of the demands of the M.A. program. I've been lucky that her health has been better recently, as it has been difficult to maintain my routines. I manage all of the medical and finances, which can be demanding and stressful. (I am sharing this to provide a bit more insight into my life, but would appreciate that you not disclose any of the details related to mother in videos online, as I have chosen to keep this part of my life a bit more private). It has enabled me to evaluate my time differently and I think I am better at time management because it forced me to be so. It has also influenced some of my choices in recent years.

Module 1—Leadership Habits (CAPE 3)