If there are times you shouldn’t be
writing grants, it would probably be when you are trying to get school started
and when you are very close to the close of the school year.
Right now you should be focused on
getting the school year off to a good start, both for you and the students for
which you are responsible. Regardless of
your position, the first weeks of school each year often determine how the
remainder of the year will go and how much success you have throughout the
year. It is much more important for you
to focus on a good start than it is to write a grant.
But even as you focus on making that
good start, you should also begin looking for changes that need to be made to
your school, campus, or classroom. Every school has problems. With
most budgets cut to the bare bones these days, anything above and beyond the
normal curricula will probably have to come from grant money.
If you can pinpoint one or two areas
that do not start well this year, you will soon have the beginning of school
behind you, and you will be into the September-October prime grant-writing
period. You might find that you need to
provide extra after-school tutoring this year so that at-risk students can keep
up. Or possibly you don’t have the
computers and the software that you need to be most effective in your teaching.
Believe me, in most schools it
shouldn’t take you long to find a list of problems that need correcting or a
new program or two that you need to initiate. Unfortunately in most schools the problem is not in finding trouble
areas, it’s having the money to fix those problem areas once we find them.
So, as you start school in the next
few weeks, remember to concentrate on that good beginning. If you deal directly with students, you want
to make sure that every day is a good one for them and that they accomplish as
much as possible. If you don’t deal
directly with students, you want to support those teachers who do in such a way
that their job is as easy as you can make it.
We are fortunate in the school
business that we get a new beginning each fall. It doesn’t matter how badly last year went, you have a chance each year
to get the train back on the track and move it forward once again. Just remember, while you’re getting off to
that great beginning, don’t forget to look for those problem areas that need
mending. Once you find one or two of
those, it won’t be long until you’ll want to start looking for grant money to
support those positive changes.
Have a good year. Put a smile on your face and greet those students every day. Remember, if it weren’t for those students, we wouldn’t have school at all. Sometimes, I think we let that basic concept elude us for a while. The beginning of the school year is certainly the time to reaffirm it.
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