Tuesday 1 November 2016

#NaBloWriMo


Reflection is so important in education.  As a teacher, I always felt I never had my students do it enough.  I myself did it daily - but not formally.  I had fleeting moments or thought.  I had short (or sometimes long) conversations with colleagues.  In my new job at Digital Literacy Resource Teacher (DLRT), I am not doing it enough.  I am so caught up in the learning and doing that I am not taking the time to reflect and digest my day to day.

In November a few years ago, a colleague (Elise Abram) challenged the students at the school to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) wherein one commits to writing a certain number of words each day that would essentially yield writing a novel in a month.  Ambitious.  While I have no intentions of novel writing right now, I have decided, to ensure I am more reflective (and/or sharing more), to write a blog post every work day in November.  Ambitious.  I am calling it #NaBloWriMo.

I have had a lot of people tell me they admire my intent.  They say they would not have time.  I have two responses:

1) You make time for what you feel is important.  I learned this when my middle son was in the hospital last December for a week.  I never thought I could miss a week of school, or be away from my two other kids for a week...but I did...and it was fine.  I found a way to make it work.  (Willy is fine by the way.)

2) I know time is going to be an issue.  New, full-time job with a learning curve so steep it is inverted.  Three kids under 7. Active social life.  Desire to make time for treadmill (easily solved by #TreadmillPD) Yep.  All barriers, but I listened to the most recent EdSurge on Air podcast today sharing Jim Shelton's keynote at iNACOL conference and he said something that struck me: "[barriers present] problems to solve, not reasons for inaction".  I love this.  I don't want to throw my hand up in the air...I want to reflect and I am going to make it happen.   I think it will make me a better educator.

Maybe you'll join me.  Maybe your goal will be to blog once a week..maybe once this month.  Maybe your goal will be different in nature but similar in commitment level.  Make it you...but reflect on what you need and do it.

2 comments:

  1. This is great! My advice to you is to write these posts about simple topics. Don't try and transform the world. Strangely, by lowering expectations of yourself, you just might hit the moon. Good luck! I'll be following!

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    1. Thanks Royan! I am hoping it is an organic process..first two have flowed pretty easily. :)

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