CUE the Rock Star

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a rock star is a famous and successful singer or performer of rock music, or someone who inspires fanatical admiration.

I think a rock star is someone who goes above and beyond the normal work day, steps out of his/her comfort level and seeks to make new connections. 

This is the definition of a

I had the pleasure of attending #cuerockstar Tahoe in June and being on faculty in Las Vegas. WOW! I'm not quite sure if I'll ever be able to attend a regular conference again. In case you are unfamiliar with this style of PD click here. 

Not only was I able to learn, I was able to meet several of my tweeps and make new connections. Meeting Lisa Nowakowski was definitely a highlight since I had participated in a blogging contest with her back at the beginning of the year. I was inspired so much in Tahoe, as a participant, that I stayed up until one in the morning finishing a song parody from one of the sessions I went to. Thanks Diane Main! I know you want to hear it, so here it is..."This is How We Write"

Trying not to disturb my roommate, I worked in the bathroom.

The inspiration continued in Vegas and began with a road trip with Jennifer Kloczko and Amy Harris. Imagine three women in a car for nine hours. I know what you're thinking, gossip, gossip, gossip. WRONG! Try nine hours of talking instructional strategies, integrating tech and great kid stories. Are we teacher geeks or what? It was great. We even got excited when we stopped at Alien Fresh Jerky in Baker, CA.

Can't you tell we're having fun?	Amy testing out editing photos
Alien Fresh Jerky	The aliens that, I assume, make the jerky.
Galactic patrol keeping the galaxy safe, or at least the parking lot	Our final destination

As soon as we got to our hotel, we started meeting others who were on faculty, several being tweeps I was dying to meet in person. I accompanied John Wick to the airport to pick up Doug Robertson, who is indeed a bit weird, in a good way. Instantly, I was making new connections that I knew would last. I met Kristen Beck, who lives practically in my backyard. Why it took us meeting around 600 miles away from where we live baffles me, but meet we did. I was also very excited to meet Sam Patterson and Wokka, who I have followed for a while on twitter. I haven't told you this yet, but I am a bit of a social misfit, don't do small talk well, and generally feel terribly uncomfortable being in a room of people I don't know. So putting myself out there can be difficult, but #cuerockstar gave me the opportunity to step out of my comfort level in order to make new connections. I can't tell you how huge this was for me and how proud I am that I stepped up to the opportunity.

The Vegas Faculty minus Kristen Beck :(

Being on faculty in Vegas gave me another great opportunity, admitting that I didn't know it all, nor should I. Believing that the smartest person in the room is the room began to relieve some stress for me as a presenter. Being on twitter for a year now has really taught me to share, not be perfect, not be a know-it-all, but to learn along side my PLN. I may have been the presenter, but I was merely there to share what I've done in my classroom in hopes to inspire others to try new things. I was not there to be the expert.

Ultimately, I achieved my goals. I pushed myself out of my comfort zones and inspired others to try new things. This was my first time presenting since I've been on twitter and it was a bit weird having people mention me in their tweets and follow me because they liked me and/or my message.

                                                                                                                          Created by Yau-Jau Ku     

Thank you CUE Rock Star for this opportunity to grow. I have merely touched the tip of the iceberg with this post and have not mentioned all the wonderful people I met, conversed with and continue to get to know. As I get ready to start a new school year, I am so blessed to have been re-energized, through professional development no doubt, and am ready to continue to learn and grow as a professional and a human. I may have inspired admiration, but I'll leave the fanatical kind to the musicians.    

Genius Hour = AMAZING

Oh Boy! I know I can have high expectations and can sometimes have a hard time relinquishing control in my classroom, but with genius hour I gave a bit of instruction and then GOT OUT OF THE WAY. 

No really, this genius hour idea solidified the fact that giving students choice is a mighty powerful way to instill a desire to learn. On average, absences dropped by 1/3 on Fridays when genius hour took place. Students would come in and get right to work on researching, creating, or blogging. There was never a need to tell students to get on task. Once we started blogging, our class community took off and before I knew it students were helping each other with problem solving setbacks, working out an idea and affirming the work of their peers.

As a recap, I held Genius Hour every Friday during my Language Arts class, starting January 17 and ending April 11. I instructed, through mini-lessons, about 5 times (researching, how to borrow others' information, how to blog, how to create an engaging presentation), leaving the rest of the time for students to work (see my initial steps here). Not only did each student learn about their topic, but then the learning became exponential as students gave their presentations. I found myself learning along with my classes as well. There are definitely tweaks that need to be made, but for our first crack with this type of learning opportunity, it was an absolute win. I've listed a few of the topics and tools my students used to complete their project below.

A few of the topics:

• how to design a car
• creating websites
• how regeneration works
• how waterproof materials work
• learning the fictional language from Dr. Who
• learning Italian
• how light affects taking photos
• how to get a job at google
• what dreams mean
• how to tell if people are lying
• the history of tap and how to dance a few steps
• how different kinds of flour change the taste of a cookie
• how to write a children's book
• inventing a new game
• how a crane works

A few of the tools used:

• google presentation
• Prezi
• imovie
• Scratch
• google forms
• google sites
• Codecademy
• Appsbar
• Xcode
• Playmycode
• Unity 3d

The most interesting part of watching 160 students present their projects was that only a handful of topics were repeated. I was actually surprised that there were so many different interests in my students. 

Students doing exercises from a presentation on teen healthy eating and exercise.

Student explains how a crane operates via illustration and model he made.

Students learning how to code with paper cups during a presentation on what code is.

Volunteers coming up to the computer to play a game designed by the presenter.

Student explains what stop motion is before showing us the video she created.

In the end, I did not grade the final presentation because I wanted students to not fear failure, and some projects did fail. In those cases, I talked with the students to help them glean the lessons that were learned and advised them on how to present their failure as a learning opportunity. After all, if someone else fails, then you now know how not to do it, right? Because the final product was not being graded, students felt comfortable with sharing their failure. Students were only graded on the basics of presenting (eye contact & voice level) and proving they did research (1-2 slides of information learned & work cited).

At the end of the day, everyone had fun, learned a few things and realized that learning can be fun and interesting. Students thanked me often for giving them this opportunity and now that I have seen the power of choice, I am now working on restructuring what I do in the classroom to help promote the love of learning.

In the future, I plan to give explicit instruction on creating a presentation and model several ways to present. It's important that students know how to convey ideas in an engaging way. I also want to conference more with each student through the whole process. Finally, I need to do a better job communicating with parents. Because I didn't really know what I was getting into and mostly let it unfold as we went, I didn't quite know how to convey that to my parents. Next year, this will be the first thing I do. I am hoping to tap into my parents as possible mentors for projects. My ultimate goal for genius hour is to connect with the community. I would love to see students working with a member of the community that can help them learn their topic. For instance, I had a student learn about stockbroking. It would have been great to find a member of the community that could have given this particular student some insight into the reality of stockbroking, thus enhancing the learning experience and bringing it into the real world. 

Now the questions are...

How do I always give my students these kinds of learning opportunities?

How do I tailor an assessment system that makes these learning opportunities meaningful and showcases skills and content learned?

and

How do I convey the importance of this kind of learning to my parents, colleagues and administrators?


Genius Hour has proven to me that this is what my classroom needs to look like every day. I have begun a journey to transform the learning that takes place in my classroom. It can only get better from here.

The Week I Moderated #slowchatED

In my last post I introduced the twitter chat I was moderating the week of March 24, 2014: grading practices that encourage curiosity, risk taking, and help reduce the stigma of failure. Now I know that grading is a hot topic and selfishly I wanted to moderate because I needed to get my thoughts straight about grades. The conversation completely met my expectation. 

I first started off by getting participants to think about their own experience with grades from all perspectives: student, teacher, parent. I wasn't too surprised that most reacted the same way I felt, that grades don't really communicate the kind of learning that is really happening for our students. Several of us had negative feelings about grades on all three levels and thought that traditional grading practices just don't jive with what we are trying to get students to do. 

Next, I wanted to know what participants' grades truly reflected. I asked them to be honest. I know that no change can take place unless you "own" what it is you want changed. So, if we want to change the way our grading systems operate, we were going to have to own up to anything in our grades that caused them not to accurately reflect the learning we want to document from our students. Many teachers use rubrics and standard based grading, but several found that translating the rubric score into a percentage/letter grade just wasn't working and questioned the validity of the grade. I find myself in this boat. I strive to get my students away from the number, the letter, but ultimately it is the system we have. Peter Strawn said it best...

This is truly the conundrum and why our traditional system is flawed. Peter goes on to question...

I believe that students are so conditioned to go after the "A", but what does that mean? Most parents are also conditioned to think that if their child turns in all of their work that the child will receive an A. What has an "A" become? Documentation of compliance? This is where we, as professionals, will need to make sound, professional decisions. We know that we want our students to love learning, have several opportunities to reach proficiency, and not let failure deter them from success. We need to remember...

What I liked best about the conversation is that everyone was honest, helpful, and truly reflecting on their grading practices. One of my favorite questions asked participants to design their dream grading system. These responses are what grades should be all about:

This, too, is my dream and I plan to move more towards a system next year that fosters the love of learning and allows students to see their growth. I also want to involve the global community in that process, give my students a stage if you will. Feedback from more than the teacher is powerful. How am I going to do this? With baby steps. Goal #1:

It starts with creating the culture for learning. It will be hard to reprogram students and parents, but I am up to the challenge. The whole educational system is changing. The system used to grade the learning in that system needs to change too.


Bonus Material: One of my favorite tweets of the week:

This is a sign of good thought provoking conversation. #slowchatED is the perfect twitter chat that allows for deep thinking and the time to process all ideas. Kudos to David Theriault, the mastermind behind the chat, and may you find yourself involved in the conversation soon.

#slowchatED Week of 3/24/14

This week I'm moderating #slowchatED on twitter. It is great to have a chat where you can take a whole day to ponder a question, pop in and out, and have a wonderful conversation. I have long thought about grading in my classroom, realizing the way I received grades as a student is not the way I run my classroom now as a teacher. I have wanted to try standards based grading, but have often been the only one, or been flat out told "No" by an administrator who feared what parents would think. Well, it's time that I move beyond the philosophical and move towards real tangible strategies to use to make grades in my classroom be a true reflection of the kind of learning taking place for my students.

A few weeks ago Peter Strawn posted a great blog post, where he compared the game of soccer to learning. This solicited a comment from me and launched me into volunteering to moderate for #slowchatEd so I could have a conversation with anyone willing to participate. Then last week, I saw this tweet:

It seems as if students are beginning to understand the process of learning, seeing that traditional grading practices may not reflect what is really happening. So, this weeks #slowchatED will focus on grading practices that encourage curiosity, risk taking, and help reduce the stigma of failure.

Questions for the week are below and are subject to change, to reflect the flow of the conversation. 

• Q1 - What is your experience with grades? Positive,                    Negative? (as student, teacher, and/or parent)
• Q2 - What do your students' grades reflect? (completion,            mastery, practice, etc.)
• Q3 - Can traditional grades reflect the kind of                              learning we want from students? Do they allow                    for failure?
• Q4 - How can grades reflect curiosity and risk taking?                Should they?
• Q5 - How would you design your dream grading system?          What to include? Should you have one at all?
• Q6 - Based on this week's conversation. Will you change            your grading practices? Why/Why not? How?

Q1 will be tweeted Monday morning. Follow the #slowchatEd and join the conversation.

With a Task, They Will Discover

Fourth period. Each student on a chromebook. Round 3 of introducing students to the KidBlog website. Tired of talking.

Flickr Image Credit

When all of the sudden it dawns on me, "Why am I the one stepping students through each step? I bet if I give them a small task, they will discover how to maneuver the site, teach each other, and do it faster than if I were talking them through it." Thus the release of responsibility began.

Introducing students to our blogging site for creating our genius hour reflection blogs (another post coming soon) was the perfect opportunity to let go of some control. As long as the task was manageable and I encouraged students to talk with each other, in some classes I actually had to remind them several times, students would be able to learn on their own. And, this would deepen their understanding in such a way that they would be less likely to forget how to maneauver the site.

Here was the task(s):

1. Change your display name to your first name only
2. Title your blog
3. Change your avatar
4. Post a new post titled "Test" with the text "How are you?"
5. Visit the class blog
6. Comment on one of your peer's post with the text "Great"
7. Think about why we would use tags on our posts

Needless to say my students handled it wonderfully. Once they started to talk with each other, they started flying

through the tasks. Once their time limit was up, I asked volunteers to verbally step us through the tasks so if anyone had not completed them, they would have an opportunity. This resulted in students who were proud of themselves, a renewed sense of our classroom community, and a break for me.

The point is...setting students up with a task that forces them to discover the learning will give students the opportunity to think critically and work together. I need to do this more often with tech and you should try it to.

The Thing About Tech

I recently went to Playdate San Jose in my attempts to find time to learn new technology. This was a day similar to the edcamp model I have blogged about before here and here. A day where I got to decide which app, tool, or website I wished to know more about and have time to discover. Not only did I walk away with an even more increased desire to find time to play with tech, I realized the thing about tech is...

1. There are lots of options. - This can be overwhelming and sometimes it requires you to focus on just one or two new pieces of tech to learn. 
2. You shouldn't get stuck in a tech rut. - What works best for you at one time in your tech lifetime may not be the best at another time. I got into a discussion with someone in one of my sessions about being open to trying new apps, not getting stuck in the "I like this because I've always used it" rut. This holds true for life in general, but I think this is most important with tech. With the ever expansion and retooling of tech, it is imperative that you be willing to try a new tool, app, or website.
3. You need to give yourself time to play. - To truly know whether or not tech is going to suit your purpose or need, you need to give it a chance. I'm not saying that you need to learn all the ins and outs, but at least give the tech a good test run before you decide it's not for you. 
4. Don't be afraid to try. - You cannot truly know what tech is all about unless you jump in and try. In all my years of hitting buttons and clicking here and there, I have never, I repeat, I have never broken anything. Ok, maybe I accidentally deleted some files, but I was able to get them back. The point is we need to act like our students in this regard and just click all over the place. Be fearless in your play!
5. Don't use tech just because it is there. - The use of tech should be purposeful. Have I used tech before because it was fun? Absolutely. But, the majority of my use serves a purpose. I think about my lesson objectives first, then about how tech can help in accessing, producing, and assessing those objectives. I think of the SAMR Model. Tech should not drive what you do, your lesson objectives should and there are times that pencil and paper are best. Using tech should take careful thought.

When all was said and done, I was exhausted and my head was full of ideas. I love that tech is ever changing and the fact that I can continue to learn it everyday keeps my brain fresh and my ideas current. I look forward to the next Playdate.

3..2..1..Genius Hour Launch

All during winter break, I researched, thought, and tried to plan what my genius hour would look like for my 7th grade Language Arts students. I perused some live binder collections like Joy Kirr's and Mike Stein's, that had been tweeted out on twitter. Of course I googled genius hour, 20% time, and passion projects in search of any information that would help me figure out how I would present the concept and support the learning, all without grading much of it. I started reading Drive, by Daniel Pink, and really thinking about motivation. There is actually a ton of information out there now, if you look for it. So many educators have latched on to this idea of allowing students to learn for learning's sake, not just because of some standard. Finally, I said, "Enough! We're doing this!" and promptly threw myself and my students into the genius hour rocket and lifted off.

I did make sure I knew what I hoped to accomplish, standards wise, and what the students' end product would be. Genius hour was going to have 3 learning goals: basic research skills (website evaluation, search tools, documenting sources), presentation skills (listening, speaking and sharing knowledge doesn't necessarily mean that it should be in a powerpoint), and that learning is fun. I'll admit that this is sometimes the stuff that doesn't get explicitly taught in my room, maybe mentioned and practiced a bit, but my goal with genius hour was about giving students time to learn what they wanted (motivation) and weave in skills that they will use heavily in the real world, research and presentation skills. I decided to do this through mini-lessons. I never wanted to take the whole hour for instruction and practice, as I was afraid that students would think that this was just another thing the teacher was doing to them. It was imperative that students bought in and saw this as an opportunity to do something they probably have never done in school...have complete autonomy to study any subject of their choice.

The particulars I decided on were the following:

• Every Friday (20% of their LA time)
• Begin Friday, January 17
• Presentations - Friday, April 7 & April 11

January 17 came and I was nervous to say the least. I wasn't sure if students would be into this; my group this year is big into being told what to do. Below is what we did for the first 4 Fridays as a way to establish genius hour.

Day 1 - Introduction

This was a minimum day, so I had 30 minutes to introduce the idea. I first showed them Chris Kesler's video.

Then showed this...

The looks on my students' faces were absolutely priceless. I forgot to tell you that I had been dropping hints at genius hour since before winter break, so I definitely had some intrigue going on. So after watching these videos, I asked them what genius hour was and some brave souls nailed it right on the head and those were the students that were excited. Everyone else was cautious, they didn't believe their teacher would allow something like this. Even after I spent the rest of the class period explaining, so many walked out of my room in shock, literally.

Day 2 - Brainstorm Day

Using a brainstorm sheet from Mike Stein's livebinder, students took about 20 minutes to just sit and think. Many had some difficulty and I had to walk around, asking questions as a way to help draw ideas out of them. We discussed what made a good driving question for our project, discussing questions that were too broad or too narrow. I had students then add to our bad ideas chart on the floor so that we could get all of those out of our system. So, questions like, "How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich?" and "How can I make the world believe that Justin Bieber should be president?" are not genius hour worthy driving questions. The class period culminated with students writing their driving question at the bottom of their brainstorming chart.

Day 3 - Initial Research
The first 20 minutes were used to teach a mini-lesson on evaluating websites. I went over the REAL strategy, based on the work of Alan November in Web Literacy for Educators, and we evaluated 2 websites side-by-side, one credible and one not credible, using this checklist. 

Students then got 20 minutes to do some initial research. Students created a doc in their google drives to take notes as they researched. They had the option of tweaking their driving question if their research quickly gave them an answer, or if they found that their question wasn't really what they wanted to do. 

Day 4 - Pitch Day
Borrowing an idea from Kevin Brookhouser, students would pitch their genius hour project to me. They were going to sell me the idea that they had a clear picture of what they were learning, how they were going to learn it, and how they would present their learning. 

The day before, I was out of the classroom, so I made a tutorial that students watched (see below and don't laugh) and they filled out a planning guide for their own pitch.

Students then had the rest of the class period to practice their 30 second project pitch.

On the actual pitch day, students came to me to pitch (graded on eye contact and voice) and those that were not pitching were doing research. They evaluated 1 website, using the checklist (graded for accuracy), as a way to be held accountable for the day's work and as a way to practice evaluating the credibility of websites. I was able to hear all of my students. Some classes were as large as 34, but since they only had 30 seconds, I was able to power through all of them. After some pitches, I did have to ask questions to clarify and some students had to tweak their planning guides. But, for the most part, 99% of my students understood exactly what they wanted to learn and how they would go about learning it. There will need to be more discussion about the different modes of presentation. I don't think they quite understand that their presentations can be interactive and that is what we will work on in the coming weeks.

After 4 weeks of Genius Hour Fridays, I am excited to see what my students will accomplish and so thankful I chose to dive in and try something new. Look for future posts on our genius hour journey, coming soon.

Edcamp. Take II.

How did I spend the first weekends of the new year? Learning in a professional community, of course! Last Saturday I participated in edcamphome2.0, which was my first edcamp experience, completely online. And this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of participating in edcampsac, a face-to-face edcamp. Some might say that I had a hand in helping bring the edcamp experience to the Sacramento area, but that is it, merely a hand. The power house organizing team consisted of Peter Strawn, Colin O'Connor, Cynthia Cost, and Danielle Lemke, new acquaintances that I now consider to be trusted colleagues. 

Danielle, me, Colin, Peter, Cynthia

The day started with a decent gathering of educators from near and far, with varying years of experience. There were experienced edcampers and newbies, but you would have never noticed if the question had not been asked at the beginning. As the first sessions began, I was immediately flooded with new ideas to take back to my classroom, as well as to other colleagues. The mood was friendly, inclusive, and jovial. It is always nice to be learning with a group of educators that want to grow as professionals, which is not always the case at our own schools, so the day really energized me. Not only did I get to learn with familiar faces, I got to learn with new ones, creating relationships within the region I work. This is important to me because often I feel that I am in a bubble in my district, since I teach in the foothills of the Sacramento region. I am not near a metropolitan area, nor near an area heavy with technology industries like say the Bay Area or L.A. region, which can often promote forward thinking and innovation.

That's why I feel so strongly about this edcamp movement. It brings everyone together to share their knowledge, thus growing the knowledge base of everyone. It's almost like a collective think tank if you will. Not only were new resources, strategies and general ideas shared, but the sessions also allowed for individuals to problem solve issues in their own classrooms. In one session I was in, genius hour/20% time, a participant was concerned that an administrator might question her incorporation of the time into her math class. The group quickly offered up solutions and justifications she could use to explain her decision for starting genius hour in her classes. This is the power of a group of educators who come together to learn from each other, and I was almost dumbfounded by the amount of trust that had already been built in the room by people who barely knew each other.

I had two takeaways from the day that included the idea of changing the face of professional development. There are experts among us, we need to leverage the knowledge and talent of those around us, whether that be at our school site, district, or region. When PD is participant driven, the more learning takes place, which leads me to my biggest takeaway. I need to use this model in my own classroom, leverage the experts in my room, create a culture of trust and learning for my students. This way learning can be authentic and meaningful. We had a wonderful day, as evidenced by comments made in the Slam session. 


I was left thinking: Don't we want our colleagues and our students feeling this way about learning?

Edcampers taking a moment, in between sessions, to document their excitement for learning.

Yes Virginia, the Global Community is Real

If ever I needed proof that the global community is where I needed to be, then today was the day. I took part in edcamphome2.0, an unconference style of delivering professional development. This took place completely online through the use of google hangouts on air, numerous volunteer moderators and the 4 most amazing organizers (Kelly Kermode, Karl Lingren-Streicher, David Theriault and Shawn White). Now, if you are not familiar with edcamps, you really need to sit up and pay attention! Edcamps are non-commercial, participant driven and completely unscripted. You can read more about edcamps here and I'm sure I will blog about this more in the future. This kind of PD is by education professionals for education professionals. Today's participants ranged from classroom teachers to instructional tech coordinators, to librarians to principals. And, I might add that everyone I participated with today was an extraordinary, passionate educator wanting to grow and learn.

What I Observed

A few days before the event I saw posts in the Google+ edcamphome community teaming with excitement, questions and comments about everyone's desire to connect with one another. I was excited too, but still not ready to contribute to the general buzz of the community. Even though I am on twitter and have begun to blog, this is all still rather new and I enter every online activity with some trepidation. I am very aware of my digital footprint and want to stay safe online. Just a year ago I was afraid of becoming "searchable", but I am learning that I can be safe and still be part of a global community. And my fear of becoming "searchable" really went out the window when a friend and colleague texted me last night with the following image and comment:

In all honesty, seeing my image on her screen freaked me out. Do I really need to be a part of a global community? Is the community real? I mean does it function like a community does? Will the educational global community that I am becoming a part of take an active role in contributing to my professional well being? The answer is an emphatic, YES!

I observed the true meaning of community today, everyone coming together from across the country and world to take an active role in contributing to everyone's professional well being. This was evident from the very beginning, 4 people organizing an event for the benefit of hundreds of others. As edcamphome kicked off tech problems arose, naturally, and several people were helping to troubleshoot, not just the 4 organizers. Moderators, some of whom had never initiated a google hangout, stepped up to help with offering several session choices. And several participants tweeted out resources. This was all done for the betterment of the community, plain and simple.

What can the community do for you?

1. Help you build relationships - The kind of relationships that mean helping you when you are having a rough day or want to learn something new. I am finding that some of the people in my global community are becoming true friends. Here's the perfect example, a teacher from Argentina, Maria, establishing a new relationship with Susan, a school counselor from Canada. This was posted minutes after edcamphome was over today. That is how fast relationships can be built.

2. Nudge you to try something new - In the closing remarks, Karl, one of the organizers, urged everyone to blog about their experiences stating, "Not if, when you blog about this". Some became new bloggers today, like Laura Eldred. Read her first post here. 

3. Help you to learn by doing - Several participants today were not familiar with google+, the hangouts, googledocs, etc., but by learning by doing more authentic learning took place. I was so impressed how willing people were to take part despite this unfamiliarity. I was one of them. I got a crash course in goggle+ and hangout on air, but by learning in this manner, I have truly learned it.

My takeaway from edcamphome

The educational global community is real. It is chock full of passionate, fun, supportive people who want to share and contribute to others' well being, both personal and professional. For those of you who may be too scared to jump in, come on in the global water is great! The community will not let you fall. It will support you, challenge you and encourage you to try new things. The edcamp model for professional development is what learning in our profession should look like. Find an edcamp near you and become a member of a wonderful community.

My #oneword 2014

After reading Learn. Lead. Sparkle's latest post I started thinking. Me thinking isn't always the best thing, it can keep me up at night. But, the idea of looking at a new year's resolution in one word just might be the trick for me. So what would my one word be?

To answer this question requires me to reflect on 2013, not the best year. I lost many friends this past year and lost one of the most influential men in my life, my father-in-law. So many losses can start to take a toll on you, your marriage, your profession, and really get you pondering the meaning of life. With all the sadness throughout the first 6 months of 2013, I found it difficult to always look on the bright side of things. Add this to the fact that I wasn't entirely happy with my work situation either. 

Like they say if you can't change the situation, then change your attitude, so my oneword is...

Image Credit

I will find joy in all that I do. In fact I'm taking it one step further. I plan to keep track of the joy I find by keeping a Joy Jar where I will write little notes of what brought me joy on what day. This way at the end of 2014, I will be able to look back to see how I kept my new year's resolution. And, if I know myself, there may be some post-its on my bathroom mirror reminding me everyday to find the joy. Joy in the big things like my family, my friends, my job, and in the small things like my drive to work, my purchases at Starbucks, etc. Finding joy in all that I do will have a ripple effect, an exponential impact on my life, something I greatly need.

Find joy in all that you do and resolve to find your #oneword.

That's What I'm Talkin About - Join Us

I feel compelled to write this post only a few days after my initial post, and I know many professionals know the power of social media, twitter in particular. But, what happened to me yesterday exemplifies why more educators need to create their own professional learning networks (PLN). Here I was worried about sticking my neck out to the world and sharing ideas. Terrified that no one would care, that my writing was bad, or that I had too many typos (since publication, I have corrected 3), I nervously clicked "Publish" on my newly created blog. Here's what happened:

1. Two of my favorite tweeps, Jennifer Kloczko (@jkloczko) and Karl Lingren-Streicher (@LS_Karl) retweeted my first blog post

2. Two others, whom I did not know, Lisa Nowakowski (@NowaTechie) and Donnie Piercey (@mrPiercey) commented on Karl's tweet.

3. 30 something replies later I now find myself with two new tweeps and involved in a blogging contest
     - For more information on this blogging contest see Lisa's first post of the year here.
     - We even decided on a hashtag for the contest (#TeacherBlogContest)

This is the power of my PLN. Here I was worried about putting myself out there and instead I find myself empowered to continue. I have met two new people, who I can't wait to meet face-to-face in the future, and am having fun. That's what I'm talkin about!  I want to shout it from the rooftops...come, join in, you will find yourself better personally and professionally for it.

As someone who is relatively new to this whole twitter/blogging thing (5 months), I am so glad I have joined in. If you want to stay current, develop positive relationships with wonderful people and grow as a professional, then you need to create your PLN and if comfortable, start blogging. It's a new year, so try something new. If I can do it, so can you!

Photo Credit: Doran via Flickr