Daily Archives: January 3, 2023

One Word 2022: Musings & Review

My #Oneword 2022 – my first ever, I might add – was “Amplify”. Check out how I viewed “Amplify” a year ago, followed by italics comments on how that aspect played out.

What does #Amplify mean for me? (bold= original thoughts; italics = reflections)

  • To support and promote and lift up and encourage the teachers and leaders in my district that I serve as an Instructional Coach/Instructional Lead ➡️➡️
    • I’ve been able to do this by giving shoutouts to teachers and schools in our Coaches’ newsletter.
    • Our district superintendent also has a process for nominating people who deserve accolades from “the top” – dozens of unexpected letters of commendation have been sent out based on my suggestions.
    • When I go to schools I make an effort to pop in and say a hello to every teacher that I can find. Some days s I do this better than others, but overall this has led to stronger relationships and more coaching opportunities
  • To be a useful member of the communities and PLNs that I am part of; to be part of the conversation and an active participant ➡️➡️
    • An example of this is learning to use Twitter spaces to host a live Twitter Space from the @ISTECommunity account following the bi-weekly ISTE Expert Webinar – I’ve hosted several this past year.
    • I was involved with a group of Google Certified Coaches and Trainers to build a 90-Day Coach Launch manual bit.ly/Coach90DayLaunch – a project led by Katie Fielding.
    • I’m currently part of a similar group working on another crowd-sourced product
  • To be brave enough to promote the work that I am doing and the resources that I am making ➡️➡️
    • This one is still tough, but I am doing some “stretchy” things.
    • In the summer I applied to present at a TCEA Coaching Conference in Austin, Texas. Our PRPS coaching team attended the conference in October and I presented 2 sessions. Although I do quite a bit of presenting, these were a struggle; maybe the topics I chose were too much of a reach?
    • I am making a 3rd mini-video Skills Challenge series, mostly aimed at our district, this time on “Search Skills”. These are being followed by more and more teachers and classes in my district. I share them on Twitter (and now Facebook) but they get relatively little traction there, like my Google A-Z video series. But alas, the idea is to just keep putting it out there.
    • Sometimes these resources don’t catch on until much later. I’m working on being brave enough to share them in some of the Coaching groups I belong to like Google Certified Trainers, GoldEdu with Stephanie Howell (@MrsHowell24), and Eric Curts’ ControlAltAchieve group (@ericcurts). Resources are often passed on and appreciated in these forums when they go largely unused or appreciated “at home.

Coming soon: #OneWord2023!

If you are reading this, I would love for you to share your #oneword in the comments!