A place to reflect and share

My word of the year is "intentional," and adjective that means to do something on purpose or done on deliberately.   I am trying to do my job with intention, not to just let things happen, but to plan and have a purpose for what I am doing and how I am doing it.   As part of this plan I have implemented the use of a bullet journal to keep me focused on what needs to happen and what I would like to happen each day.  This is working well and I may share my system in a future post.  Another thing I am doing is finishing the educational books I started reading earlier this school year.   Kid's Deserve It and Innovator's Mindset are the two that I was half way through and had stalled out due to lack of time.  I have since finished the first book and two-thirds of the way though the other. Both of these books have helped me refocus on what is most important about my job, the students!   

Sunset at Newport, RI - photo Credit Dale Young

Being an Instructional Technology Specialist, my students include both the kids in the school and the teachers that I work with.  The teachers are the ones that I have been called upon to teach and facilitate growth in the area of technology integration. I have longed struggled with how do I do a good job working with the students and the teachers and have come to the conclusion multiple times, I cannot do both well.     One or the other usually suffers.  Lately I feel like the teachers are suffering the most and I need to refocus my attention on them.  I have a plan in place to address teachers these last 4 months of the school year and I am looking forward to working through that plan and seeing the results.

Another thing those books have made me think about is the power of reflection, something I do not take enough time to do.  I have started this blog with the intention (see - there is my word again) of reflecting on systems I put in place at school, technology I share, and my thoughts as I work through how to serve the needs of the students and the teachers on my campus.  I also hope to connect with a few folks along the way to challenge my thinking and keep me growing.