Bold, my #oneword

So one of my things for this year is to blog more often, specifically at least once a week. A lot of what I blog has to do with instruction or tutorials. That will mainly be my focus throughout the year but I do want to start sharing my thoughts and ideas when it comes to the profession. So when it came time to choose a #oneword for 2018, I wanted to make sure I sat down and wrote up a piece on it to explain why I chose ​BOLD.

Bold: take risks, be confident and courageous

My word that I want to define this year is something that I want to be a staple for the rest of my teaching career and something that I have tried to be for the last three years. Being bold is taking risks, yes. It also means to be confident and courageous, which only happens if I really understand the risks I am taking. If you have or haven't seen my other blog posts, let me explain what makes my class a little different. I have incorporated technology heavily into, to the point where I set aside a chunk of time daily for students to explore technology and just technology. Is there a risk in doing this? Yes, but the payoff is incredible. Will it require me to learn about every item I will hand to my students? Yes, but their reactions are priceless. Will this blow up in my face? It can, it will and if it does it just means that I need to refine my process. The other positive from failing is that I can show my students how we get back up, adjust and go at it again.

What risks do I want to take this year?

In order to continue with this BOLD mindset, I need to keep pushing what I learn so then I can pass that on to my students. I can't stop learning about new technology or methods of teaching because my students are successful. I want to keep them on their toes and that will require for me to be constantly learning. Below are some of the items I want to tackle this year and each will require time, effort and a risk of failing.

1) Take the time to complete my Google certification level 2 and then apply to be a Google innovator
2) Find more technology for my classroom so that I can send my students to 7th grade as experts in many different types, i.e. robotics, 3d printing and so on.
3) Keep refining everything I do and not settle for what works, I want to always ask myself "How can that run even smoother?". I want to apply this to my classroom, any sessions I do for conferences and everything in between.
​4)Blog weekly, podcast weekly, push some form of media out there weekly!