Educator, assess thyself.

The end of the school year is a time that many of us take a moment to reflect on what we've accomplished and what we failed to accomplish.

If you are like me, you will base that assessment on a list of professional tasks that you set out for yourself at the beginning of the year. You can find mine here.

For those of us in education for which standard classroom teacher evaluations aren't a good fit (technologists, librarians, coordinators or one sort or another, etc.) establishing annual profesional goals is critical. Whether one is asked for them or not. And if we supervise others, we can ask those whom we are asked to evaluate to take a more active part in evaluating themselves using self-created professional growth targets.

I've always encouraged school librarians to have long range goals and annual objectives for two reasons. First they are a great communication tool that can help inform administrators about what one's work entails beyond teaching library classes. Co-authoring goals can be an opportunity to build administrative buy-in to your program.

But for me there is somewhat hidden value as well:

Good assessment tools are not used to simply evaluate work at the end of a given time period. They should serve as a guide and reminder for day-to-day activities. Regular conferences with the principal and/or building library committee have always helped force me into working on objectives through out the year rather letting my natural sense of procrastination convince me to set them aside until May. Progress toward long-term goals based on the needs outlined through a formal program assessment can guide the discussion at such conferences. Indispensable Librarian, 2nd ed

So, educator, assess thyself- even when you are not required to do so. It really is in your own best interest.