Last year, I joined the #oneword movement and choose “Try”.  And, in retrospect, I think it did guide me.  This year, I again wanted to choose a simple word that would propel me forward.  Believe it or not, the simple words often have a variety of meanings.

MOVE

Intransigent verb: To go in a certain direction with continuous motion; to take action; to carry on life’s activities

Transient verb: To rouse up from inactivity; to stir the emotions; to cause to change position

The goal this year is to do more than move myself.  I want to focus on the transient verb and move others to explore and change positions.  Do you have a long held belief about education?  Sure, most of us do.  But I want to challenge your beliefs and see if we move them.  We may not change an iota of what we do, but the act of reevaluating your position will, in fact, move you forward in your teaching.  And, honestly, we will change something.  Teaching is an iterative process.

I want to explore more with tips and tricks for teachers.  I learned this year the importance of repetition for teachers learning new skills; like students everywhere.  It is not enough to show them once and provide a nice link with instructions.  Those are important, but not enough.  Taking the time to show it again and again helps reinforce the concept to teachers, especially those feeling nervous.  But I don’t have time to help each individual teacher repeatedly until they “get” it.  So I will provide online help.  If I can move teachers to looking at the online help, it will be fantastic 2017!!

I am starting a new adventure myself and I hope that I bring movement to wherever I land.  If you want to do one thing this year, then get up and move.  It’s also not a bad New Year’s resolution for me.

Citation: Move. (n.d.). Retrieved December 28, 2016, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/move