Opportunities Abound

When I read a post on the PLP blog and picked Opportunity for my word of the year I didn't have any idea what an impact it would have on me. Just two days into the new year I knew I picked the right word, and one month later things have not changed.

Yesterday I had to opportunity to represent the faculty of our new building by serving on a panel to interview the principal candidates. While I've had the opportunity to participate in interviews as part of my internship program, I was quite honored to be selected. It was interesting to hear all of the candidates speak and exciting to be able to give my input. I'm excited to see which candidate(s) will move on in the process, and I look forward to working with any of them to create an amazing new community of learners.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to reflect upon my students' learning throughout the second marking period. I was excited to see how their writing had improved and to see the growth many kids made towards our reading benchmarks, but at the same time I am not happy with the assessments I used for my content areas. I continue to reflect upon what I can do differently to make this learning more purposeful. It shouldn't just be about regurgitating facts for a test or quiz. How do I balance my beliefs with a need to "get 4 grades per marking period" for our progress reports? Here is my opportunity to learn and grow during the third marking period.

The weather has provided me the opportunity to get caught up on all of the housework that I skipped this weekend while working on progress reports, but I've been a little distracted from that task. That's because another opportunity popped up in my inbox this morning. This email's subject line was "See you at TEDxNYED!" I'm honored, humbled and excited to have been accepted to attend TEDxNYED. There are several people from my PLN who will be attending so I am very excited to meet with them in person. I'll admit, though, that I am also completely and utterly terrified about this opportunity. I am probably the farthest thing from a city girl you will ever find so the thought of going into the city, navigating around the city, and getting back to my train has me about sick to my stomach. But that's the thing about opportunities: the good ones always help you learn something. Sometimes that something is WAY outside your comfort zone, like navigating NYC will be way out of mine, but what I will take away from attending more than makes up for the fear I'm feeling about the trip.

So January ends and February begins the same way the new year rang in, with opportunities to learn and grow everywhere.