“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.”
– Sheryl Sandberg

As a teacher and as a teacher advocate and as a supporter of public education and education for ALL students I often think about creating systems and structures that allow our students the benefits of “being in the right place at the right time“. Often I have written about we educators only having one year to make the absolute best impact on our students. Students only have one chance to be in kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, etc. We have around 175-180 days per year to facilitate learning in the most meaningful way possible. We don’t get do overs for our students – we have tremendous power over their lives and we have tremendous responsibility to ensure that all of our students are in the right place at the right time.

As leaders it is incumbent upon us, in my opinion, to create and sustain optimal learning structures so that the right place at the right time is not due to chance but due to deliberate planning and creation. Look at the quote at the start of this post from Facebook’s COO (Chief Operating Officer), substitute the word “leader” with “teacher” … our work is to make others better. We can make others

The major findings – distilling from millions of studies on what works.

better by adopting a Right place at Right time mindset. When every day in school is a day of meaningful discovery and when every day we create sustainable structures that allow for differentiated, individualized, and ultimately to personalized learning, we will be living this concept of helping ALL students be in the right place at the right time.

Think about your own life’s experiences, when have you felt you were in the right place at the right time?

When have you described someone’s “luck” or “good fortune” as saying “X” was in the right place at the right time?

Let’s challenge one another to make every day one in which ALL students are in the right place at the right time!

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER