Make Yourself Irreplaceable

In the mornings when I get ready for school I usually stream 92KQRS through my Apple TV. Listening to the morning show has been a routine for me since moving to MN and beginning my life of the commuter teacher.

Now that I now longer commute a great distance, I can listen in the comfort of my home while I'm drinking my coffee or doing my hair (I love that!). Today I was catching the back end of the conversation, which happens quite frequently as I'm racing around the house, but I did catch something quotable from Tom Barnard. It went something like this:

"Why don't you all just get off your a**, go to work, do a good job, and make yourself irreplaceable"

WOW! Whatever the context or conversation, that is a powerful statement, and something EVERY person should strive to do EVERY day. Where has the feeling of entitlement come from, how did it start? Why do I know people will be offended by this?

The same message was expressed at the TIES conference I attended last week, "Make you absences be a void that hard to fill", to a room full of 1500-2000 teachers, and we all cheered and clapped. We WANT our students to think "Man I wish Ms. C. was back teaching this class" because we want to do a good job and teach our kids to be great learners of knowledge, so our void IS hard to fill. Not impossible, but if we were gone, our hard work would be remembered.

The same work ethic, life ethic, is what our students need now more than ever. Don't sit around waiting for someone to hand you something, go out, work hard, do a GREAT job, and make yourself irreplaceable.

Just some morning ramblings from Christian's Corner down in the suburbs.