Monday, December 9, 2013

Viva la #nerdlution

As usual, I'm late to the party. I should probably make my #nerdlution to try and be ahead of a trend, but, as I understand it, the point is to set a goal to be accomplished over 50 days that is actually realistic. While I believe in failure as a necessary step towards learning, my experience tells me that setting myself up to fail will not result in any new learning, only frustration, self-doubt and the inevitable internal "I told you so" conversation that really doesn't need to be repeated. I'm too old for that.

I was fortunate to be mentored by an administrator who firmly believed in a whole child approach to everything. She always talked about incorporating a social, emotional and physical component to nearly everything you do in life. To honor her, I'm going to make three nerdlutions, one for each category.

Being a trendsetter in technology, fashion, pedagogy, thought, etc. is out of the realm of possibility. As much as I admire the great young minds on twitter, I'm not going to be one of them. Whoever said "youth is wasted on the young" has never read a blog post or tweet by Justin Stortz @newfirewithin, Oliver Schinkten @schink10, John Spencer @edrethink, Dave Burgess @burgessdave, Pernille Ripp @pernilleripp, or Joy Kirr @JoyKirr. These creative, passionate and thoughtful young educators are just a few of the connections I've been fortunate to make on twitter who have helped shape my thinking. One of my nerdlutions is to send a tweet of thanks out over the next 50 days to people (young and old) who have impacted the how and why of what I do each day to let them know they are appreciated.

I'm halfway through a master's program. For much of the past 9 months, I've felt slightly guilty when I'm actually doing something unrelated to the program during my free time. One thing I haven't been doing is reading just for fun. I remember what it's like to read a book without (references, 2009), but I haven't made the time to actually do it. Therefore, my emotional nerdlution is to read a book unrelated to education for 15 minutes each night. I'm going to enjoy that.


Finally, my physical nerdlution is to ride my bike during the nightly news each night. I have everything I need to make this happen - I'm just lazy. So, enough with the excuses, already. Via la nerdlution!

(I've  just decided  to stay away from toxic people and detox myself; I realize that I should commit to that for more than 50 days, however. I was reading Tamra Dollar's latest post http://www.dollarliteracy.blogspot.com/ while writing this. Her #tweetpreciation will be one of the first.)




4 comments:

  1. I especially like the bike on the trainer. I finally got on my own trainer tonight, and it felt good (after it felt bad, of course). Thanks for your post and for tweet.

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  2. Great post and great Nerdlutions honoring the whole person. Love your trainer. Something to watch helps the time go by....Try good movies :)

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  3. Great & thoughtful post. You bring up some important points. I can also remember the days of "reading a book" just to "read a book". That seems a luxury of the distant past. I love your goals. I think they are wonderful.

    You are not giving yourself enough credit in this post, though. You have been an inspirational educator to me and many others on Twitter and I am so happy that I have had the opportunity to connect with you. Thank you for your kind words!

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  4. Those are all great resolutions and finding balance in our lives can be difficult. But a few minutes of reading and some time exercising sharpen the mind, body and spirit, right? Good luck, and stay connected. And stay away from the negative nellies. I know, not always easy. But worth the effort to remain positive.
    Kevin
    PS -- your blog is another stop on my own #nerdlution of 50 comments on 50 blogs over 50 days. Thanks for being part of the connections.

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