Deb’s One Little Word for 2018

This week is the week my co-authors, and I announce our One Little Word (OLW).  The idea of choosing OLW to guide the year is one I welcome wholeheartedly.  I know myself well, and I have found making a new year’s resolution left me feeling sub-par at best.  The problem was I almost always lost sight or obedience to the goal.  So, a few years back, I made one final new years resolution, no more resolutions!  This resolution stuck and I welcomed the transition from a resolution to OLW.  A word serves more as a coach on the side than a self-imposed mandate.  

The quest of choosing OLW to guide my thinking, my work, and my reflections is never easy.  As a matter of fact, last year’s word, “bombas” haunted me until I admitted to myself this was the word for me.  While it isn’t easy to find my word, once the word finds me (which is most often the case), it sticks with me.  My word brings me comfort.  I see, hear, and feel my word in my actions, conversations,  lessons, and my writing.  

Previous OLW’s

• 2017-Bombas
• 2016- Intention (Favorite)
• 2015- Listen

I have experienced a couple of big changes in my life over this last year.  Both have brought new opportunities and give reason to celebrate, but I have struggled to take hold of these changes completely.  My husband and I have become empty nesters.  Both of our daughters living and studying in various states.  My new position as an instructional technology coach has changed my daily routine, my professional responsibilities, how I plan, how I support students, and how I view myself in the world of education.

Watching my daughters live out their dreams and work toward life goals has been inspiring.  As I watch them, I notice a pang of nostalgia for the days when everything was new, and the possibilities ahead were endless.  This pang of new opportunities is what brought my OLW for 2018 to me.  Here I am in a new place in my professional career; the possibilities are infinite if I open myself up and embrace all it has to offer.

My new position has been a significant transition.  I am learning about myself, how to support adults, and how to work with students who aren’t my students.  Often, I am asked how I like my new role.  This question is a difficult one to answer.  My heart is in the classroom, and yet I see great potential in the opportunity of working as an instructional technology coach.  Supporting teachers and their students is an honor.  I want to teach and learn with the teachers and students in a way that best fits the needs of their community.  

About a month ago I was finishing the novel Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.  The author’s words struck me at my core

Each scene has its own music, and the music is created for the scene. Woven into it in ways we do not understand no matter how we may love the melody of a bygone day or imagine the song of a future one; we must dance to the music of today.  If not we will be stumbling around in something that doesn’t fit the moment.

Listening to these words I realized I am stumbling around in something that doesn’t fit the scene.  I will always miss the community of a classroom of my own, and I will continuously envision the day I return to the classroom, but now is the time to embrace my new role or I will have missed out on today.

I am embracing the opportunities, the learning, the struggles, and the growth of my new position just as my girls are embracing their new lives.  

Our OLW has a way of finding us in the most unexpected ways.