2011 Wishes

The graphic on the left is a word cloud for my blog made at Tagxedo. I thought that would be a good place to start the new year, with a look back at 2010.

It has taken me a week to write this post because I wanted to really reflect on what my wishes were for 2011. I decided that I really have only one wish. My wish: that there are no more ‘us vs them’. In order for progress to be seen in education we need to work together and in order for that to happen, we can no longer be on different sides.

Whether we are educators, administrators, parents, paraprofessionals, clerical, staff, or techies it doesn’t matter our job is the same: to encourage, foster, and facilitate learning. The students have to be our first priority.

During the past year I have seen many examples of those who have been blockers to real progress because of pre-existing views that they wouldn’t compromise on. So, for the new year my wish is that we can move forward and not get hung up on petty ‘us vs them’ issues. Let’s start looking at the world from each others perspectives and let’s continue to ask ourselves: Is what we are doing good for kids?  If it is, fantastic. If it isn’t then let’s look at all the solutions and all the possibilities before we decide on one to try first.

If we do this one thing, then everything else will follow: rich discussions about kids (for kids), collaboration, problem solving, and real progress towards every student living up to their potential.