Can you pick out those items below that make you an effective educator? Which ones can you honestly say that you need to work on? Top Performing Educators are effective at what they do and are not defined by policies and procedures. Here are ten things you can work on daily to help you reach the top.

In essence, effective educators…

1. Listen to and follow their intuition. They know how intuitions and insights come to them and are tuned-in internally to make wise decisions.

2. Are aware of who they are— strengths, weaknesses, personality, values, etc. They know that the most important (and interesting) thing to know about is “self.”

3. Reflect on and learn from past experiences, finding out what works and what doesn’t, and then adjusts their course of action as needed. They think about things before jumping in, and also take the time after-the-fact to actively reflect to fully understand what happened or didn’t happen.

4. Can easily entertain innovative ideas, thoughts, and ways of doing things. They long for progressive and forward thinking information, concepts, and people. They often come up with new and radical ideas on a regular basis.

5. Are open to different perspectives and see possibilities where most people don’t. They are comfortable with paradoxes and can relate to numerous sides of an issue or opinion.

6. Recognize and respond quickly to opportunities and people. They act and react fast, and take care of what needs to be taken care-of, well ahead of schedule.

7. Don’t have to know it all, but they do know where to go to get whatever information, resources, training, education that they need. They are well networked and have people to call on for resource referrals.

8. Think for themselves. They do not blindly believe things so-called “experts” say, in fact, they ask deep questions to discover their own truth.

9. Are committed to being a lifelong learner. They continuously learn new things, and stay current with their skills, attitudes, and beliefs.

10. Do not take themselves or life too seriously. They recognize the importance of finding the fun in the irony and the comedy of everyday life.

Let me know, in the comments area, which ones fit (or don’t fit) you at this point in time.

Stay tuned for Part Two, tomorrow, where I will share ten more ideas.