My #OneWord 2019: Ambition
Ultimately, my #OneWord is about a sense of accomplishment.
It would be easy to choose #OneWord and do nothing with it, but I am determined to regain my #Ambition this year! January is off to a good start, but it is early. I am not posting this to say, "Hey look at me and everything I am doing." I am posting this to acknowledge areas where I am being ambitious and reflect on ways that my #ambition still needs work.
Ambition around the house...
YUCK! Housework - seriously not my favorite thing. Plus, it is a never ending battle. My #ambition here is limited but I will say that keeping the dining room table clear, the kitchen sink empty (at least 3 days a week - Yes that it progress), and folding laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer are tops on my "ambitious" list for 2019.
Ambition at work/school...
Paperwork. It is never ending. Just like the housework. In my role as AIG consultant/teacher, I keep a daily log that tracks how I am spending my time. In the past, it was easy to get behind on this and I would find myself playing catch up. That often meant re-creating an entire month of activity. What a chore! #Ambition at work means I will open up my log daily and enter the activities before heading home.
Another beastly work chore is communicating the progress of my students with their parents. This is beastly because I serve between 80 and 100 students during the course of the year and every nine weeks, I send progress reports, rubrics, and artifacts to their parents digitally. This is super time consuming! Going digital doesn't always = getting done faster! Fortunately I found a really awesome mail merge template for Google Sheets. I'll be podcasting about it soon. Aside from the fact that some of the email addresses I entered were incorrect, this worked like a gem! It takes some #ambition to locate tools that help you 'work smarter NOT harder' but it is so worth it when you do. Now that this template is set up, the only thing left to do is correct the inaccurate email addresses and switch out the links to student files when 3rd quarter rolls around. #Ambition can pay off big rewards!
Ambition as a learner...
I will never stop learning. In fact, I don't even equate my desire to constantly acquire new knowledge with #ambition most of the time, but I probably should. Last year, I introduced the YouCanDotheCube program to my students. They were hooked immediately and I found myself thinking, for the first time in my life, that I might actually be able to learn to solve the cube too! Lo and Behold... fast forward... Jan 14, 2019... I have committed the algorithms to memory and my best time is 3 minutes and 30 seconds. Nowhere near a record and some of my students can absolutely solve it faster, but I definitely exercised my #ambition on this one! I'll be sharing some of my strategies for learning this in a podcast too.
More learning...
I have weighed the pros and cons of seeking Google Educator Certification for quite some time. In fact, I agree with much of what Bill Ferriter (@plugusin) has to say on the matter of badging BUT I also agree with Kyle Hamstra (@kylehamstra) who takes a somewhat different stance on badging. Ultimately, it boils down to "MY WHY." Why should I do it? Until recently, I didn't really have a reason to actually sit down and take the time to become certified. Google Educator Certification isn't a free program and they aren't sending you any promotional materials aside from your badge credentials. That actually increases the value over some programs that require minimal effort and offer plenty of swag and sometimes free upgraded subscriptions, along with the badge.
My real reason is quite simple: Having the credential of Google Certified Educator Level 1 demonstrates that I really do know my stuff when it comes to Google for Education. That's it. Plain and simple. Everyone that sees it knows that I have a solid understanding of GSuite and could probably help other educators make better use of these tools. Most people who really know me would say that they didn't need to see this credential to know that I can help them answer their #edtech and #Google related questions. But what about the people who don't know me well? What about people who stumble across my blog or my website? How would potential employers or those considering engaging my consulting services know that about me? So, I mustered up the #AMBITION today and I took the test. Will I do level 2? Well, level 1 was not difficult for me, but it was time consuming even though I finished with time to spare. But, yes, I will probably seek Level 2 and eventually the trainer certification. Who knows, I may even go so far as to seek the #innovator level. It all just depends on how much #ambition I have.
Ambition as a collaborator...
I will close this blog post with my thoughts on this area. Twitter is my go to space for #collaboration. Find me @technotchr. My blog, website, and podcasting ventures pale in comparison. In 2019, I plan to focus more of my #ambition in spaces where I can think and share more deeply and use the content that I create as a springboard for even more collaboration on Twitter.
I think there are a few other areas I could have mentioned but my #ambition for this post is waning. If you have #oneword for 2019, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. Perhaps something I said has sparked a thought that could lead to a conversation. If so, please take a moment to share your thoughts and help me add value for other readers through our conversation. It would be especially interesting to hear from others who have chosen to pursue or have avoided Google Educator Certification. I'd love to hear your "Why."
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