One Little Word

As I have begun my writing journey with my students. I have begun expanding from reading published text to reading other teacher's blogs. I was reading from an excerpt on the Two Writing Teachers blog about "One Little Word." They got the idea from Ali Edwards, but I really began to think about what I could do with this idea on my own and in my own life. As I lay awake thinking last night (it seems all my "great" thinking happens right before bedtime), I couldn't decide on which word to choose. Should I choose inspire? This is such a driving force in my classroom. I want my students to be inspired. What about believe? This year I have really had to take a leap of faith and believe in myself in ways I never thought possible. Or strength? It seems just when I thought I had nothing left there was this resilient oak tree standing within me that helped me make it through. What about create? I had put all of my creativity aside..thinking I had let my family go in the divorce when really it was just looking at things in a different light. So I decided....drumroll..."create."

In 2009, I want to focus on creating. Creating a transformation in my home and finish the transformation of my classroom.

Create-use of imaginative skill; design

I have chosen the word create as my one little word to live by for 2009. I hope that my life will begin to embody this word. That I will use the techniques of thinking outside the box in all aspects of my life: personal and professional.