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organizations and individuals find their own voices. Covey describes voice as the internal drive
to face challenges and rise to overcome them. He explains that each of us has a voice that lies at
the central confluence of talent, need, passion, and conscience. The premise of the book was that
if you didn't find your own unique significance (voice), neither you nor your organization would
be able to achieve greatness. After I read this book, I considered the word "greatness" for a long
time. Of course, being an incessant analyzer, I asked myself this question, "What does greatness
mean in education?" Then I began thinking about my own career.
I know I was a good teacher, but I never thought of myself as a great teacher. I certainly had
passion, enthusiasm, and creativity, but I never thought I had the stuff for greatness (though I did
the best I knew how with the resources that were available). As a teacher, I found myself
naturally drawn to thinking about what I could do to improve my lessons, to overcome negative
student behaviors, or to encourage individual students. I went to conferences, saw other teachers
with more experience, verbal acuity, and style, and I wanted to be like them. While I was well
aware of my own shortcomings, I never quit trying to improve, grow, and learn to be a better
teacher.
I achieved tremendous success in getting my students to take and pass the AP Spanish language
tests and to actually speak Spanish, but my strategies and skills were not unique. Aside from a
little bit of personal flair (my daughter Mercedes would say fifth-grade humor), these strategies
were the compilation of wisdom and experience gained mostly from other teachers.
Although I was not a world-renowned educator, I would like to believe that I eventually found
my voice (or unique significance) and achieved a moderate level of greatness. During this whole
process of becoming great, the varied experiences in my career as a teacher deepened my
knowledge and skills, strengthening my resolve to improve my craft. In that process, I went
through the typical three-stage teacher-attitude cycle (this parallels research done by Frances
Fuller and John L. Watzke):
anything. Then I went back into the classroom and faced the reality that I had only a certain
amount of time, strength, and energy. I seriously doubted my own capacity to teach and my
decision to become a teacher. I struggled through another year in which things improved to a
moderate degree.