As 2016 comes to a close, I reflect on how this school year has been both challenging and rewarding. Moving to a brand new content area encouraged me to grow in ways that I didn’t realize were possible. Learning the curriculum, working with a new professional learning team, and teaching kids one year older not only refreshed me but gave me much needed insight as I prepared for my instructional facilitator role. Since becoming an instructional facilitator, I have been able to work with a plethora of teachers in the building. From working with 7th and 8th grade teachers as they designed and implemented video projects to even working with math teachers on integrating the 4 C’s (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration) into their lessons, it has been an honor to be a part of great instruction on campus.
Because of the many transitions that I have been experiencing this school year, I’ve neglected some of the things that brought joy to me personally and professionally. Because of the amount of time and energy I was putting into my language arts position, I haven’t written a blog post about Finnish education since September. I’ve also wanted to continue to learn and grow with my #PLN (professional learning network) on twitter, but took a hiatus as I tried to balance new responsibilities at school. Personally, I haven’t played tennis in quite some time and wasn’t making as much time to go out with friends.
With this reflection and with me finally getting back into the swing of Twitter, I’ve been motivated by the amazing things my #PLN has been writing about through blog posts and scholarly articles. My perusing of these posts brought me across the hashtag #OneWord2017. In a sense, this hashtag asks for us to create a one-word resolution for the new year. I wanted to think about a word that encouraged action as a motivational factor in itself. I thought of words such as create, understand, and even collaborate. While these verbs all had professional connections for me, I came across the word trust as it also had a personal connection to me.
Trust is such a basic word in terms of Scrabble, as it is made of only one-point letters. I decided to see which words I could build off of trust and quickly noticed that words like construct (17 points), hear (11), and enjoy (30) all have strong connections to the word trust. So even while trust is worth only five points, it is so much more complex than it seems.
In the past, I’ve struggled with trusting others personally and professionally. My goal for 2017 is to trust in the people around me and in myself.
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I will trust in the ability of those around me to achieve their goals (and trust that they will hold themselves accountable)
-
I will trust in myself to seek first to understand others before jumping to my own conclusions
-
I will trust in myself to make the necessary steps towards improving things that I can help to influence
-
I will trust that things out of my control will work out in the end
-
I will trust in myself to find continuous joy in both my professional and personal life
What is your #OneWord2017?
As 2016 comes to a close, I reflect on how this school year has been both challenging and rewarding. Moving to a brand new content area encouraged me to grow in ways that I didn’t realize were possible. Learning the curriculum, working with a new professional learning team, and teaching kids one year older not only refreshed me but gave me much needed insight as I prepared for my instructional facilitator role. Since becoming an instructional facilitator, I have been able to work with a plethora of teachers in the building. From working with 7th and 8th grade teachers as they designed and implemented video projects to even working with math teachers on integrating the 4 C’s (creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration) into their lessons, it has been an honor to be a part of great instruction on campus.
Because of the many transitions that I have been experiencing this school year, I’ve neglected some of the things that brought joy to me personally and professionally. Because of the amount of time and energy I was putting into my language arts position, I haven’t written a blog post about Finnish education since September. I’ve also wanted to continue to learn and grow with my #PLN (professional learning network) on twitter, but took a hiatus as I tried to balance new responsibilities at school. Personally, I haven’t played tennis in quite some time and wasn’t making as much time to go out with friends.
With this reflection and with me finally getting back into the swing of Twitter, I’ve been motivated by the amazing things my #PLN has been writing about through blog posts and scholarly articles. My perusing of these posts brought me across the hashtag #OneWord2017. In a sense, this hashtag asks for us to create a one-word resolution for the new year. I wanted to think about a word that encouraged action as a motivational factor in itself. I thought of words such as create, understand, and even collaborate. While these verbs all had professional connections for me, I came across the word trust as it also had a personal connection to me.
Trust is such a basic word in terms of Scrabble, as it is made of only one-point letters. I decided to see which words I could build off of trust and quickly noticed that words like construct (17 points), hear (11), and enjoy (30) all have strong connections to the word trust. So even while trust is worth only five points, it is so much more complex than it seems.
In the past, I’ve struggled with trusting others personally and professionally. My goal for 2017 is to trust in the people around me and in myself.
- I will trust in the ability of those around me to achieve their goals (and trust that they will hold themselves accountable)
- I will trust in myself to seek first to understand others before jumping to my own conclusions
- I will trust in myself to make the necessary steps towards improving things that I can help to influence
- I will trust that things out of my control will work out in the end
- I will trust in myself to find continuous joy in both my professional and personal life
What is your #OneWord2017?
Very thought-provoking post. I have also been reflecting on the word "trust" lately and how we continue to build/foster trust in our personal and professional lives. Gonna spend some time reflecting on my one word and I'll be sure to share when it hits me. Thanks for posting. Continue to do great work.
ReplyDeleteAs a scrabble lover I couldn't help but love your post! The word "trust" is an important word that we should all keep in the forefront of our actions. Without trust it is near impossible to grow, learn, and become better with those close to us. I appreciate you sharing your "One Word" for 2017.
ReplyDelete