Josh’s #OneWord2021
I always find the beginning of a new calendar year to feel less impactful as an educator. It doesn’t hold the feeling of a new beginning like a brand new school year does. Maybe this is why I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions. To me the new year just feels like a midpoint. Because in reality, I’m about to start second semester. It’s not a new school year with all of its magic and its routine trappings of starting over. So personally I like to think of the New Year as pit stop in the middle of the trip. I can grab some snacks, gas up, and check my map to make sure I’m heading the right way.
With that in mind, I think I am going to treat this year’s #OneWord a little differently. This is only my second time participating in the process and like all good bands, you gotta shake it up your second time around. My #OneWord2020 was “forward” and I’m keeping that with me in my pocket as we start 2021. But I’m picking something for this year that might seem quite the opposite to forward if I want to hang on to that word.
For 2021, I am going with the word….
I still want to move forward but I want to take this opportunity, this weigh point, this refrain before the second verse, to reset and make sure I am ready to take on the rest of the semester and the changes that lay ahead of me after this school year is over. It was easy to lose focus at the beginning of this school year. It was a virtual start after not teaching in my classroom since spring break. It was easy to put off goals. It was easy to set aside a lot of what I wanted to get done. It was easy to get buried in worrying about 2020. It was easy to put “forward” behind me.
So I want to reset. When we reset we are starting again but with a new focus, with the understanding of what went wrong or what we need to do differently. It’s how you begin again after you reflect on your mistakes, your successes, and what you want to try different this time around. I’ve taken some time during the break to reflect on where I’m at in the school year, in my career, in my journey to reach my goals. So it’s time to start again, to reset the pieces and get my mind right.
A song by Bane comes to mind and although it’s on what they believe is their worst album it is truly a hardcore anthem.
“Can we start again? Go back to what it meant back then. Open minds and open hearts, the things that set us a part.”
So, I’m going to start again.
There are changes on my horizon and I want to make sure I am heading in the right direction. So this is my moment to reset myself.
I’m ending my run as a union leader this year. This semester is my final serving as president, the role I spent the last 3 and a half years in. I have served as a building rep, an executive board member, and vice president all before taking on this role. For the last 10 years I have been a leader in my local union. I want to make sure that I end my time the right way. I need to keep moving forward but I want to reset my focus to make sure I am leaving the organization better than when I stepped into it.
I have been a classroom teacher for the last 15 years and in the next month or two I begin the process of looking for a leadership role as an assistant principal or a dean. This next step is something I have though long and hard about. It was a debate for a little over a year in my head and in conversations with my wife, people I consider mentors, and friends. Leaving the classroom, not pursuing a larger role in the union, those were hard choices to make. So I am moving forward but I want to reset and make sure I am focused in on how to make my goal happen. Am I taking the right steps, have I made the right moves, what can I do differently with this a renewed and reset focus to take this next step?
I am resetting my focus.
I’m keeping “forward” with me in 2021 but I am using the word “reset” to start again. I’m going to keep moving forward but this time I’m using what I learned to reset and do it better with a clearer mind and a clearer focus. An open mind and an open heart.
Here is a live version of that Bane song from their last show. It’s powerful, heartfelt, and damn do I want to jump on that stage.
