My Three Words for 2021

Who would have thought that back when the clock rolled over to the year 2020 that we would be ending the year like we have! 

As we wind up this crazy year, one practice keeps me grounded and hopeful going forward is the practice of reflecting on the year and choosing three words to guide me throughout the next year. This is a practice I learned from Chris Brogan, and one that has proven to be beneficial to me both personally and professionally.

Since 2014, I select three words at the beginning of the year that will set my intentions, drive my actions, and align my purpose throughout the year. 

Choosing three words is something Chris Brogan has been doing since 2006. He sums it this way: 

“The three words are a shorthand representation of your bigger story. It’s kind of like how an icon isn’t the software program. It’s just a way for you to mentally access all the work you’re doing.”

Before I choose #my3words for the new year, I spend some time reflecting on the past year. (Thankfully, the weather has been pretty nice in Alabama so I have been able to do my reflecting during my outdoor runs - my best thinking time.) 

Here's what Chris writes about choosing your three words:

Choose any three words you feel will guide you forward. I can tell you a few things about this:

• Don’t make it a phrase. “Publish the book” is a terrible choice. “The” is wasted.

• Try to make the words actionable. “Expand” is better than “bigger.”

• The more utilitarian the word can be, the better. These words have to be your compass.

• Stick with the 3 words all year. Every time I’ve changed one a month or two later, the year mucks up. I can’t explain it. But I can report it.

• Years where I’ve tried “fancy” words with layers of meaning, I lost the thread. Use plain words, maybe.

• BUT the words don’t have to mean anything to anyone but you. Don’t worry about explaining them.

In 2020, one of my words was BUDGET. I started in January and learned, studied, and calculated. I'm proud to say that I've learned a great deal and put it into action throughout the entire year. There are so many great people that are in the debt-free community that I've discovered this year. I'm thrilled to go into  new year armed with knowledge and consistent habits that will lead our family forward in a positive way.

INVEST, in its most obvious form, is an extension of the learning I experienced in 2020. Now that I've learned to budget, I want to learn about investing and growing the money that I've learned to budget. 

Other ways I want to invest in the new year:

• I want to invest in old and new relationships. 
• I want to invest more time for experiences and travel for our family
• I want to invest in myself - from exercise to personal growth and learning new skills 

STRETCH is another word with several meanings for me in 2021. Hubs and I plan to start doing yoga together at home in the evenings, which will be entertaining as well as physically helpful. 

STRETCH also applies to my work life. After 15 years in school leadership, I still want to keep learning and adding to my "leadership toolbox." It means having to get outside my comfort zone and continue to try new things. 

There's one other area that will require a stretch, and it has to do with what I've learned about budgeting in 2020. What I've discovered from the frugal, budget, and debt-free communities is that I was not the only one who didn't know how to budget! I turned 52 in 2020, and I felt that everyone else must already know all the things about budgeting. Turns out I was way wrong. Now, I want to give back. I'm a teacher at heart, and I want to teach others what I've learned. I'm stretching myself in 2021 in a new project where I can do just that. (Be on the lookout for it!)

DISCIPLINE was one of my words when I began this journey in 2014. There were so many signs pointing to getting back to having this word as a daily reminder in 2021. 

During 2020, I had participated for 50 days in the #75hard challenge until I had minor surgery that sidelined me. I ran 4-6 days per week in the summer, usually averaging about 20 miles per week. I decluttered many rooms in my house and completed several DIY projects. I saved a lot of money and paid off several credit cards during 2020. Whew! 

I'm not looking for accomplishments, I'm looking for consistency. I'm looking for the action that causes you to "do it even when you don't feel like doing it." While I got a lot done in 2020, there were still times that I wasted time. Times when I procrastinated. Times when I "should have." I plan to change all of that in 2021. 

Jocko Willink fires me up! I love his message, and I hope that I will be able to confidently say at the end of the year that I. am. disciplined.

I hope these words have inspired you to create and share your own words for 2021. If so, please share them in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook. 

Past #My3Words Choices
2014 - Discipline. Intentional. Balance.
2015 - Rhythm. Bravery. Fitness.
2016 - Focus. Purpose. Do.
2017 - Pivot. Go. Grow.
2018 - Lift. Create. Relentless. 
2019 - Practice. Execute. Be.
2020 - Consistent. Empower. Budget.

Rethinking Assessments during COVID-19 and Beyond

The pandemic has caused us to make many changes in our everyday life, causing businesses to re-think their business strategies to remain relevant and open during these challenging times. It’s no different for education. For centuries, “school” has remained consistent and almost unchanged overall. 

With people all over the world making and implementing new plans and new ways of doing things, we wanted to focus on the topic of assessment for this blog post.  

There are some hard questions that have been raised by educators about assessment:

• Is formative and summative assessment necessary during the pandemic?

• Do tests need to be proctored and/or timed?

• Can it really be considered an assessment if students are allowed to use notes and resources to craft their answers?

• Is it possible to move beyond assessing what students know to what students can do with their knowledge (apply, create, iterate, solve)?

• Are we measuring what we value?

• How can we use technology to assist in the creation of authentic and interactive assessments?

Matt Enlow’s tweet on December 2 started a thread that gave insight into changes that teachers were making and although there is no one size fits all assessment solution, there are ways in which we can grow and assess better.

Below are five ways we found that assessments and final exams might be given and adapted during COVID-19 and beyond. 

1. Student Choice

Design tasks that allow students to spiral back through the most important standards you have covered during the semester.  Let students earn points for the challenges that they take on. Here's a challenge board that teachers can customize.  Another way to approach this type of assessment is to list the standard and then it’s the student’s job to submit evidence that they understand or have mastered it. The length of time across the bottom of the board could be adjusted to grading periods or to the complexity of the challenge. An example of a product that might be submitted was created by high school student, Shirley Zhu, “Combinatorics: Sticks and Stones”  

2. Evidence of Mastery using Flipgrid 

Example from Mike Mohammad

 

Create a Slide Deck and have each slide with a standard or learning target that students can submit a flipgrid response to. Check out the Bingo Card he created for students and the Slide Deck with Instructions.  Students are presenting evidence and it’s in short snippets. If they are recording something in Flipgrid, it’s specific and not drawn out. They hit their target and move on to show evidence on the next standard in another Flipgrid submission.  Everything is linked in a slide deck which makes it organized and easy for the teacher to assess. 

     **Pro Tip: To make assessing the Flipgrid responses quick and efficient, organize students as individual topics in flipgrid.  Greg Kulowiec explains this hack here. 

3. Final Exams or Epic Finales by Anthony Crider

 

Could exam week become the best week of the year?  Anthony Crider took the traditional exam and flipped it upside down to create a culminating experience at the end of the semester.  After seeing a colleague tackle a final by asking one really good question, he set out to do the same thing. 

“It took me longer to come up with that one good question than it did to pick 100 questions for my introductory astronomy class. I also trimmed the question down to be as short as possible, requiring students to “unpack” it even before answering it. As one student wrote to me afterward, “I think I spent as much time figuring out what the question was asking as I did answering the question.” 

“The unspoken truth of education is that we don’t want students just to learn the material; we want them to want to learn the material. The final exam closes the book on a semester of learning. An epic finale primes the students to discuss the topic for weeks (or years) to come and to leave the classroom amid a bit more awesomeness than when they arrived.”

4. A Google-Proof Assessment

  

Developing an assessment that allows students to use their notes and the resources that are available to them on a daily basis.  It is a question that can not be directly answered via Google because it requires analysis, interpretation, and application. The web will be a very helpful resource for students in collecting information related to these questions, but search engines will not lead to easy answers. Use Blooms Digital Taxonomy, adapted by Andrew Churches, to help craft questions that cause the learner to create, evaluate and analyze. Creating these questions will take time and practice. Get with your team and divide the learning targets that you’ll be accessing and use this template to help develop your questions. 

5. ePortfolio - Collecting Evidence of Learning   

A portfolio allows the assessment to shift and have the learner own the assessment process.  John Spencer has a great collection of resources to help establish a portfolio process to collect evidence of learning and has included steps to take while curating a portfolio during distance learning. 

What sets people apart from others in the 21st century is knowing what to do with the information that is available to them, not simply having the information. Developing the skills of curation, evaluation, synthesis, and application should be goals within any assessment.   

How might the next assessment you develop look different? How would you lead teachers to re-think and change their assessments?

Be your own champion!

          source

I think most educators are familiar with the TED talk by Rita Pierson. She boldly stated that every child deserves a champion. "Kids today" need adults to guide them, encourage them, and help them to become more than the child ever thought he or she could become. 

What I've come to realize through many years in education with many different experiences is that the ability to champion someone else starts with being our own champion. 

This is where the theory and the practice get muddled. In theory, we can say, "I can be my own champion." But in practice... it's a rollercoaster.

The knowing-doing gap is easily understood in a food / healthy eating analogy. We know the foods that are "good" for us (nutritious) and the ones that we should avoid based on our health and fitness goals. When we KNOW what we should eat and we choose to eat something that does not align with our goals, there's a gap there. A knowing-doing gap. (This gap can be found in most areas of our lives, sometimes wider, sometimes smaller... but this analogy seems to resonate with many, many people, whether they have a knowing-doing gap in this area or not.)

Have you noticed that when you get ready to be a champion and begin to work at being a champion, you are faced with cynics, dreamstealers, and complacency? 

Have you ever had someone to say to you, 

"Are you sure that you're the right person for that?"

Or what about... "I don't think that's going to work."

I once had a teacher say to me: "I never trust a female in an authority position." 

In the case of Rita Pierson's quote, "Every child deserves a champion..." 

Maybe you've heard people say, 

"It IS what it IS with THOSE kids."   or   "If he doesn't care, why should I care?"

This past year, 2020, has shown us all kinds of difficulties and challenges. It has caused us to pivot in ways we didn't know we could, and it forced us to create a new dialogue and perspective about education, how we lead, and what we value. 

As we approach the close of the calendar year, we begin to think about what the rest of the school year will look like and how we will be different in 2021. I challenge all of you to join me in this journey. Let's be our own champions so that we can champion others. We are going to face negative people and those who think it can't be done. Let's change the narrative. Let's not wait on someone else to do that; let's take the lead on having hope, doing the work, and forging ahead. 

Over the holidays, my husband and I broke out the Table Topics conversation starters while we waited on friends to arrive, and the question on the card read (and I paraphrase), "If you could be witness to any sporting event, what would it be?" 

The event I chose was when Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile record in 1956. Until Bannister did it, no one believed that the mile could be run in less than 4 minutes. 

What a legacy that has been left by Roger Bannister and Rita Pierson! It has me asking the question of myself, What legacy will you leave?

Teach like a champion. Walk like a champion. Talk like a champion. Lead like a champion. Work like a champion. Love like a champion.

Bring it on, 2021!  

Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson

Pin for later >>

Pin for later >>

*This post may contain affiliate links. All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting TheCompelledEducator.com

One Simple Habit to Improve Mood and Productivity

This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click and buy, I may make a commission at no cost to you.

Are you finding it hard to be positive these days? 

With COVID cases being reported and impending shutdowns on the horizon again, it can be difficult to sustain positive thoughts and actions. 

With Thanksgiving approaching and it being our season of intentional gratitude, today I'm sharing a simple habit I learned about from Jon Gordon. Jon is a continual light in the world, spreading messages of inspiration and encouragement. He is a terrific writer, too, and has written many excellent books.

I first wrote about this habit back in 2018, when I shared a 15-week series on characteristics of compelled educators. 

Jon Gordon wrote about this habit in his book, The Positive Dog. 

Click HERE or the image above to 

order your copy or to give as a gift

I find myself needing to be very intentional about guarding my thoughts and self-talk while the stress of the pandemic looms about and fills every crevice of daily living. An intentional action can produce powerful results, especially when the action is consistent and purposeful. 

Jon Gordon recommends taking a Daily Thank You Walk.

He says, "Take a simple 10-30 minute walk each day and say out loud what you are thankful for. This will set you up for a positive day."

I want to challenge all of you to take a Daily Thank You Walk for at least 10 minutes for 10 days straight! 

It doesn't have to be anywhere perfect, and the weather doesn't have to be perfect. It can be indoors or outdoors, it can be around your yard, it can be down the street and back, it can be in your building where you work... before work, during your lunch break, during work, or after work. No place is off limits!

You can be alone or with a friend. Maybe there's someone else who would take the challenge with you and you can each share out loud what your grateful for. You can hold each other accountable, so when the negative self-talk creeps in and tries to talk you out of your daily thank you walk, you will be armed and ready to defeat it!

We can't be grateful and stressed at the same time, and when we combine gratitude and physical movement, you flood your body and your brain with positive energy. Let's get moving!

Related Gratitude Posts

Change is one of our Greatest Teachers

A Thankful Heart at School

Gratitude Conversation Starters {Free Printable}

Do you want more of Jon's books, or do you know of someone that this would be the perfect gift for? See the incredible limited edition box set below!

-The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy
-Training Camp: What the Best Do Better Than Everyone Else
-The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work
-The Shark and the Goldfish: Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change
-Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture
-The Seed: Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work
-The Positive Dog: A Story About the Power of Positivity
-The Carpenter: A Story About the Greatest Success Strategies of All

Pin now, share later >>