One Word

Collectively a team, group, club, community, or school staff can create a pretty comprehensive “to do” list, resolutions, and/or goals, (personal and corporate). To this end they then can move forward working to “check off” their accomplishments as they move through the year. Often we miss the mark in checking everything off the list and our resolutions (albeit important) tend to fall by the wayside. So  there must be another way to set goals and remain focused.

This month our school staff opted forgo the traditional New Year’s resolutions and decided to select a single word that would represent our goals, vision, and focus for 2014. We each selected that single word to represent our focus for 2014.

Jon Gordon, author of “One Word that will change your life”, explains that by narrowing your focus to a “one word” vision you add clarity and focus to your year.  Gordon’s January 1, 2014 appearance on the Today Show solidified my decision to begin this process.  You can learn more about selecting your “One Word” by checking out Mr. Gordon’s website: 

http://getoneword.com/

Here’s a sample of the “One Words” from the staff at Francis Howell Middle School: Perseverance, Relationships, Character, Motivate, Risk, Balance, Ambition, Embrace, Sacrifice, Dedicated, Encouraging, and Strengthen.

Soon our student community will begin the process of selecting their “One Words” in their Character Connection Classes. Keep us posted on your journey and if you feel like it, share your “One Word” with us.

It’s time for Snow-cial Media

When life gives you a snow day- make Snow-cial Media work for you. In maximizing the best facets of our snow day/s, there are a plethora of avenues to pursue in order to feel productive and validated. You definitely need to take time to shovel the driveway or build a snowman, but you can also spend time relaxing, reading, reworking projects, or renovating your social media venues.

Making the best of your snow day using Snow-cial Media…

·         Start/Continue/Finish reading “that book”:  I have several books on my iPad that I’ve started reading. So on my first snow day, I carved out some time to simply read.

·         Write a Blog post: Many of have our established blogs. For some our initial initiative to blog weekly may not have come to fruition. So… take this snow-cial media opportunity to write a blog (or two). It will help rejuvenate your Blog (or keep you on track).

·         Participate in a PLN chat: Take this time to branch out. Look into other chats that you would not normally participate. This is a new way to expand your PLN.

·         Unearth educational websites: This is a great time to carve out time to what new websites you can use as secondary resources to implement in your classroom, share with your teachers, or parents. Www.canva.com is home to Canva. This is what I used to create the picture insert for this blog post.

·         Research APPs: this is a great time to delve into APP research and discover new tools to use to maximize productivity, enhance learning, and increase your creativity. Compliments of @2Guysshow I discovered @Gosphero). Also, I just came across Thinglink. This APP allows you to insert video and text into your pictures.

·         Watch a Podcast: For example, three Social Media leaders here in St. Louis led out a Snow Day PD session today on “Social Media in the Classroom”. Check out this podcast on Google Hangouts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gtlM5Dg1AQ

·         Educate staff and parents: This is a time to prepare information tweets, blogs, or video letters for your community. I plan on using this forum to help educate parents on some of the social media venues their children are using which they should be monitoring (i.e. askfm.com).

I hope you are able to relax during your next Snow Day. Who knows, if time permits you might be able to turn your snow day into a Snow-cial Media Day!!!