Negativity and Nerves: The Hallmarks of Any Worthwhile Endeavor

I made a resolution for 2013. Fine, I made a resolution for the 2nd half of 2013. I decided I'm going to say yes more often. Yes to spending time with friends (I'm a notorious homebody). Yes to drives down the shore (I'm really opposed to traffic). Yes to attending conferences (I don't like to steal time away from the family).  Yes to myself when I ask if I can really do <fill in antecedent for "it" here> (Self-doubt and I have known each other a really long time).

Today I signed up to present at TeachMeet New Jersey. It looks so easy in that sentence.  It went more like this.

Me: Cool, they're still looking for presenters.
Negative Me: But you're going to be learning so much already.
Me: I could probably just present one session and then be a participant and still get a lot out of it.
Negative Me: Maybe not.
Me: I could ask if that's how it works. The guy in the email said reach out with any questions.
Negative Me: Yeah, but that's not a great question.
Me: I'll ask.
Negative Me: But what would you present.
Me: Google Docs, Drive, QR codes, Today's Meet, Inkle Studios, One Word, Go Animate. I've used all that stuff in my classes.
Negative Me: Probably everyone attending this thing has seen that stuff.
Me: But I've done presentations in my building.
Negative Me: Those people don't know that stuff. They're Luddites.
Me: That's not nice. Some of them are very tech savvy.
Negative Me: (Blinks) They are not going to a tech conference.
Me: (stares)
Negative Me: (shrugs)
Me: Whatever. I'm doing it. I'm going to talk about digital portfolios with drive.
Negative Me: They know about that.
Me: I'm doing it.
Negative Me:
Me: No more negativity? (pause) Hello?
Nervous Me: Oh, hey. I heard you signed up to be a presenter.  I'll be here til then.
Me: Perfect.

As I'm dealing with these internal versions of myself, I realized that in everything worthwhile I've ever done, these conversations have happened within me.  In the times that I've been left wondering what might have been and what if, I've allowed negative me and nervous me to talk me out of doing whatever it might be. 

So here's to the nerves that come with deciding to go into the unknown.  I welcome you now. We can do this together.

My First Goal As A Supervisor

If you follow me on Twitter - chances are, if you're reading this, you probably do - you're aware that I recently began work in my new position as the supervisor of ELA in grades 9-12.  The past few weeks have been incredibly productive, as I have been given the time that teachers so often complain they do not have.  I have been able to connect with my PLN, build a new website to connect with my new staff, write a couple blog posts, develop curriculum guides, and help revise grading and portfolio guides. 

The irony of this is that I am no longer a teacher of students.  To do any of these things, a teacher would need to squeeze them in around meetings, PD, grading, and finally - the true purpose - teaching classes.

Recognizing that the time it takes to be effective is as critical as any other factor in a teacher's preparedness, I am setting the goal now - publicly - to offer as much time as is possible to my staff so that they can prepare amazing experiences for their classes.  In addition to prep time are 2 weekly departmental meetings of 83 minutes each, and I am seeking to ensure that the agendas for those meetings are largely constructed by my staff.  It's their time and their department. They should be heavily involved in determining how to most effectively spend their cooperative time.

Given the time to collaborate with your colleagues, what would you most like to work toward accomplishing?