Find One Thing

I don't know everything! - There I said it.  You can't possibly understand now hard that is for me to admit.  But, now that it's out there, I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Beginning a new position as a Technology Integration Specialist sometimes leads me to believe that I have to know everything about anything digital.  However, two blog articles this week calmed my anxiety and helped to add clarity to my role.

In this week's blog post from Matt Miller, the author of DITCH that Textbook, one of his ten suggestions for starting this school year is to find one thing that you want to incorporate into this school year and concentrate on that concept.  Too often, I find myself reading or listening to what other educators are doing in their digital classrooms and start to feel overwhelmed; as if I should be doing everything they are and know all things technology.  As Matt Miller states, "Be Judicious"  find one or two concepts and work to incorporate them into your classroom.

David Coulter's article in Edutopia highlighted a few ideas for becoming and remaining a transformational teacher.  He emphasized the importance of learning from each other.  No matter how many years we've been teaching, there are still areas (we know deep down inside) where we can do better.  It's always such a relief when we recognize how someone else has found a practice or strategy that works to improve in one of those areas and they share it with us.

As I look forward to the beginning of this new school year, I see my role in a whole new light.
Not only am I able to visit classrooms and glean new ideas and practices from those instructors, but I am also able to be the channel from which those ideas and practices can be shared within our learning community.  We, as a community of learners, grow our knowledge base from the strengths of our members.  So the anxiety of not "knowing" everything subsides with the understanding that I am part of a skilled and knowledgeable community who are passionate about what they do and the impact they make.