I’m so excited to have Beth Poss as a guest author for this post. Beth is an amazing educator and human. Beth Poss is a speech/language pathologist, assistive technology consultant, and former assistant principal. She is currently the Director of Educational Programs for LessonPix. Beth is passionate about designing educational environments that support all students in accessing a rigorous curriculum and meeting educational outcomes. In her work with school districts, universities, and organizations she focuses on how UDL is an essential component in designing equitable and inclusive learning environments. Areas of special interest include Designing Inclusive Learning Environments, Supporting Social-Emotional Learning to Promote Academic Success and Culturally Responsive Teaching.
We say it to our students all the time; “Focus! Just do one thing at a time!” and in this unusual time we are living in right now, we need to remind ourselves of the same effective practice. It is so challenging and there are so many distractions! Teaching and working from home, with your own family around, possibly caring for someone close to you who is ill, and so much more makes it difficult to focus and attend. Combine that with all of the amazing (and FREE) professional development being offered, the maybe not so amazing, but mandatory training your school district is requiring, fantastic ideas being posted to social media and the desire to be as effective as you were in the classroom and we end up with the niggling feeling that we should be doing MORE and doing it all expertly. Well, I am here to say STOP THE MADNESS. Just like college basketball, we need to cancel! Well, not cancel the championship, but cancel the guilt at not being able to do it all.
What I want to suggest instead, is that you focus on just one thing on which you want to improve your expertise, and do this with purpose. How do you do this when you are constantly being bombarded by Twitter, Facebook or Instagram posts shared by educators who seem to be doing it all? Here is a strategy to help you narrow your focus.
- Brainstorm a list of everything you think you want to learn or do–be brave and put it all down!
- Now go through and circle the things that are really important to you AND will bring you joy. It does NOT have to be a big item or an item that is important to others–just to YOU
- Star the items you circled that you have the resources to accomplish
- Put in order of importance the starred items
- Focus on #1
- Put away the rest of the list and start gathering the resources you need to get started on your choice.
Create a timeline for getting it done, and be generous with yourself, because stuff happens! I personally put the individual tasks I need to do each day on my Google Calendar with a reminder that goes off on my watch each morning when I start my day. Or maybe you might like using Google Keep to create a daily To Do list. Or the ever reliable, low tech sticky note.
Reach out to the people who can help you with this. Find a PLN–a personal learning network that can support you in this goal. This is where those folks on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook can support you, rather than overwhelm you! If your goals are related to Assistive Technology, consider joining #ATchat on Wednesday evenings at 8 pm EST. Most importantly, share your goal with someone who will help you achieve it.
And then go for it. And don’t worry about all the other items on your list. You can get back to those another time. So learn all there is to know about supporting emergent literacy instruction. Learn everything there is to know about Guided Access on an iPad. Become a Jamboard or Microsoft Whiteboard Master. Learn about all the ways you can use LessonPix with PowerPoint to create distance learning resources. Be the expert on using Google Slides. Or maybe all you want to do is figure out how to bake the perfect banana bread-one that actually tastes as good as it looks- to post on your Instagram feed. Whatever your goal is, if you make that your focus, you will achieve it.
