All of us have hopes and dreams. My friends on Twitter asked everyone to come up with our One Word for 2020. I reviewed what I wrote about for “My One Word for 2019” on how each new year holds endless possibilities. Instead of “Impossible,” I saw “I’m possible.” I didn’t see it until now. I love this word: “Possibilities” I see us considering “Possibilities” to achieve our hopes and dreams. 

Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible! ~Audrey Hepburn

Choosing My One Word for 2020 was an interesting exercise for me since I’ve been writing my book, Define Your WHY. My One Word for 2018 was YET and 2017 was Joy. I did learn that year the importance of a growth mindset and learned that adding YET on anything that I wasn’t sure about changed me. I wasn’t going to give up brainstorming ideas for one possible word for 2020: stories, hope, purpose, why, be, responsibility, and more. 2019 has exciting for me with the focus on WHY and stories. I wrote about a sense of wonder in my book and decided to share it to help me find my one word for 2020.

When we’re young, we have a sense of wonder. Everything is new and exciting.  I’ve heard this quote, “the world is your oyster.” I’m assuming that means that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. The world is there waiting for you. But it seems a little tougher and more expensive to live now. So what can we do if times may seem tough? I say it’s time to bring the wonder back. You see, attitude is everything. When times are tough and you don’t feel appreciated or valued, that’s when you need An Attitude of Gratitude. When I feel down or not sure about my day, I take out my gratitude jar and write something I wonder about or am grateful for. I found that you can’t be depressed and be grateful at the same time. Try it! If you can’t find something to be grateful for at the time, then write down something you wonder about. Push your thinking to do more wondering and find something you are curious about. Write it down!

I took out my gratitude jar and started reading what I wrote on the slips of paper in 2019. The first one I picked out of the jar was being grateful for my PLN. I read more and there were many people who were there for me. I couldn’t write my book, Define Your WHY without the support of my family, friends, and colleagues. I am so grateful. That’s it! My #OneWord for 2020 is GRATITUDE. 2020 will be the year I have an Attitude for Gratitude. My book is launching in February. I’ll be sharing excerpts from my book more often.

You can create your One Word for 2020 and include the hashtag #OneWord2020. 

• Think about your hopes and dreams.
• Come up with One Word for the new year and add the hashtag #OneWord2020.
• Create a graphic that depicts your One Word. I used Canva to create My One Word graphic. Another program I have used is Buncee to create interactive images.
• Share your One Word on Twitter and Instagram or whatever way feels good for you.

Write a post and share it on Twitter and tag me with my handle @bbray27. Over the next week,  Meredith Johnson @mjjohnson1216 of #BookCampPD will be adding graphics educators create of their #OneWord2020 You can view their creative designs at https://bookcamppd.com/oneword2020/

Go ahead can create your One Word and share it with Meredith. Let’s build our One Words together.

Barbara Gruener loves the challenge of being an educator and staying current as things trend in and out of our field. She is a coach, mentor, consultant, speaker, and author of What’s Under Your Cape.

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Barbara especially enjoys working with people as they discover who they are, what they stand for, what motivates them, and what they want and need. Enjoy our conversation!

Where you grew up

Growing up on my family’s dairy farm in Wayside, Wisconsin, I learned what it meant to work hard and make a living off the land. My parents always welcomed people into our home including foreign exchange students and foster children, so I learned to cook and manage a household at a fairly young age. I also grew to appreciate diversity and culture! These skills have all served me well as an adult.

What it was like for you as a student

I got my education at a parochial grade school, a public high school, and a Big 10 University. My first-grade teacher knew what the young know-it-all, energetic child in me needed; she made me a teacher’s assistant at the age of 6. I love learning and teaching; I didn’t love leaving Miss Natzke, and my grades 3 and 4 with the next teacher weren’t very happy. That teacher didn’t know I was an assistant and, even if she did, she didn’t need one. I was a scared, nervous wreck. It did make me happy when it was announced that summer that she was moving, especially since my little sister wouldn’t have to endure another year with her. That is until the move was to grades 5 and 6. I barely survived those four years with her; I stayed home most of the 7th grade with a severe stomach muscle spasms. After a year to heal, I did return back to school and remember enjoying my high school years. College at UW Madison was kind of hard for a farmer’s daughter like me but I love a good challenge. I graduated with a BS majoring in English and minoring in Spanish.

Your family

There were five of us kids plus mom and dad grew up on the farm in my family of origin; they all still live in WI but me. My parents divorced just as they were about to celebrate their Silver Wedding Anniversary. I’ve managed to stay very close with my Wisconsin family despite the distance.

Journey to become an educator

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science degree in English and Spanish. I began a Spanish Department in a small high school in central Wisconsin before heading to Texas in 1985. I taught Spanish and ESL classes at North Shore Middle School for a year before moving to FISD to teach Spanish and coach volleyball and softball at Friendswood High School. My education includes earning a Master of Science degree from the University of Houston Clear Lake in Education in 1989, followed by a Master of Science degree in Counseling in 1994. After 16 years of teaching and counseling at the secondary level, I decided to give the elementary school a try; there I found my niche as the counselor and character coach at Westwood for grades PreK through 3rd for 14 years, then with grades 3-5 at Bales Intermediate for three additional years.

Trauma

In January of 2013, early one afternoon on my way to get my son from Junior High for a dentist appointment, I was hit head-on by a drunk driver, who was also on her way to get her child from school. I was left broken in 3 places physically and in many more pieces emotionally. I returned to work fairly quickly, but by May that semester, I was unable to continue after PTSD made my life too difficult. After two years of trauma therapy, some medical intervention to take the edge off, and the opportunity to give my Victim Impact Statement, I was able to journey through recovery to the other side, to find my joy again, and to forgive so that I could move on. I still experience the startle response when I’m traveling down the road, and I still have chronic pain in my shoulders and neck, but it’s nothing that a chiropractor and a counseling session or two can’t help. This trauma amplified my voice for trauma victims and made me so much more trauma aware and sensitive.

Character Ed

I learned about perseverance, resilience, work ethic, responsibility, growth mindset, and grit from milking 250 cows on the dairy and doing chores before and after school during my formative years. In 1989, community members met and decided what we wanted our graduates to look like; during that time, they selected 14 traits and values that they wanted our graduates to live. In the year 2000, after a Character Counts! Training, I brought the Six Pillars of Character to our school and the Board adopted this framework to revitalize our CE efforts. Under my leadership, Westwood Elementary earned the distinction of Texas State School of Character in 2007. In 2009, we earned a National School of Character (NSOC) honor. The NSOC process strengthened our journey down Character Road; those days were, indeed, magical.

Barbara’s keynote from the National Forum on Character Ed

Book: What’s Under Your Cape

At the end of May 2014, just before my 53rd birthday, my first book was released.

What’s Under Your Cape? SUPERHEROES of the Character Kind

Superheroes

In the Fall of 2013, I was giving a workshop at the National Forum on Character Education called Character Is Our Superpower. Marion Nelson, an independent publisher, attended that workshop in DC and invited me to write the book to help other educators focus on strengths as superpowers. SUPERHEROES swoop in and come to the rescue; so do Character Kids (and adults!). It’s not about intangibles like invisibility or spidey-sense; it’s more about inspiring values like service, unconditional love, perseverance, empathy, respect, honesty, enthusiasm, responsibility, obedience, encouragement, and self-discipline.

Cape up; it becomes a fun tagline.

Kindness Matters and Spreading Love

In May of 2018, I decided to retire from my full-time work in public schools and pursue my encore career in consulting, mentoring, coaching, speaking, and writing. I’m currently freelancing as well as speaking with the Character Strong team. Additionally, in September of 2019, I am going back to school on a part-time basis, to serve as a mentor and SEL coach! Here is a graphic by Jule Woodard @woodard_julie about Kindness being a Superpower!

Gratitude, SEL, and Mindfulness

Gratitude: my one word for 2013, helped me tremendously during my trauma recovery. I strive to make it a verb, in all things. In fact, it’s neurologically impossible to be in a state of anxiety and grateful at the same time. Here are some of the suggestions I made in my freelance growth sessions:

Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL)

To me, SEL and Character Development are all about how we establish and maintain healthy relationships, about communicating, self-regulating, making responsible decisions, connecting relationally. It’s HEART work, it’s holy work, and it’s important work. It’s also about serving, about being the KIND of leader that we would follow. It’s about head, heart, and hands; it starts with empathy, becomes compassion, then moves to kindness. And kindness, my friends, is the real global warming!

Mindfulness

I’ve been researching and studying the practice of mindfulness for six years. My trauma responses and recovery brought me to mindfulness, by necessity, because I had to slow down. It’s when I learned to savor, an important lesson because we simply cannot serve from an empty vessel. It pairs nicely with self-care, to be in the moment, mindfully aware, without judgment. It’s a joy to support and encourage those educators in the field to take care of themselves so that they can overflow as they serve.

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Sharing my joy and delight for educating tomorrow’s leaders through speaking and writing is one of my sparks and my blog has been an amazing outlet for that passion. Prior to blogging, my work has been published in Teaching Tolerance magazine, Teaching PreK-8 magazine, Change magazine, Daughters magazine, and the MO Counseling Interviewer. Since the year 2008, I’ve written monthly blog posts for the Josephson Institute of Ethic’s Character Educator and most recently for Really Good Stuff and The Teachers’ Lounge. I’ve also guest posted at Books That Heal Kids, Cachey Mama’s Classroom, Teach Forever, and I Can Teach My Child and I’ve written a guest post for Kleinspiration (thanks Erin!) and was recognized at Maria Dismondy’s blog. I spent three years writing the Counselors’ Corner post for Free Spirit Press and currently guest post periodically for the Prosign Design and the Character Strong blogs.

Website/Blog: corneroncharacter.com

Twitter: @BarbaraGruener #Whatsunderyourcape 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WhatsUnderYourCape

The Corner on Character Where Character Speaks podcast: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-corner-on-character-prosign-design-N3Q7LvmJs6D/

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For all of the Conversations on Learning podcasts with Barbara Bray, click on the podcast tab at the top, the logo below or go to https://barbarabray.net/podcasts/

Sara Armstrong, Ph. D. is an educational consultant, keynote speaker, presenter, and writer working to provide resources and tools for change in education. With over 44 years as an educator, Sara has developed and implemented workshops on many topics, including information literacy, storytelling, technology integration, global resources for education, project-based learning, and integrating true social-emotional learning for living.

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I’ve known and worked with Sara since the 1990’s. In fact, my first educational technology class at Berkeley was from Sara and Flora Russ. Sara and I have been friends and worked together for a long time, and I really wanted to have a conversation with her to share all that she does including her storytelling. Just listen and enjoy. Below are many of the excerpts from the podcast.

Storytelling

Sara starts the podcast with a story that has a moral. I have been fortunate to work with Sara over the years and always looked forward to her stories. Her voice is so calming and the stories have deeper meanings that encouraged me to really think and reflect. Most of the stories do. Sara also is actively involved with the Bay Area Storytelling Festival.

https://www.facebook.com/bayareastorytellingfestival/

A little about you

My dog, Beatrice, a cattle dog mix is very smart and busy. She’s still very active at 8 and very cute. That’s the important thing. She and my husband, Robert, live in Berkeley, CA. I have been in my house in Berkeley, CA a long time and seen lots of changes here. I’m sort of mostly retired now so that means I get to only work on things that I care about. That means working on transforming education and making the systems and processes more meaningful to everybody who is involved. Less stress, more relaxation, and engagement in what people are doing by increasing the possibilities for happiness and flow to take place. So the way we do that is with project-based learning and giving students voice and choice.

Starting with Montessori

I’ve always been fascinated early on by Maria Montessori’s methods and philosophy of education, mainly because little kids were engaged for a long period of time. I took the training and became a Montessori teacher and had my own Montessori elementary school. That was my first, for a long time, my work in education. So that’s what I thought it was always like and should be like. The idea that kids can choose what they want to work on for their own learning. In the preschool, it is really wide open so kids move around here and there in different parts of the classroom focusing on different aspects of education. In the elementary school, it is a little more directed, but again following kids’ interests. So that’s what we do in project-based learning. There’s always something in whatever content we are trying to impart that gives them pathways to what they are interested in. Then the education sticks, and what we want them to learn, they learn.

My first year teaching five-year-olds. Kids had a movable alphabet which is letters cut out of wood or plastic and they make words on the rug. This one little guy spent a long time writing on the rug with the movable letters. So he came over and got me and I asked him if he wanted to read it back to me. He said, “No.” The act of creating was what it was all about. Not the communication aspect at that moment. In the Montessori method, we work with writing before reading. Montessori had K-12 schools. For the upper grades, she had an environment that traditionally was a farm school. The idea for the older kids when their bodies and minds are changing and are interested in other things was to give them skills that they can use when they get into college or the workplace along with their studies. So at the Farm School, the kids took care of the horses and worked in the fields to build capacities. For us today, it probably would be coding or something like that. It was about taking the emphasis off of academic training and into skillsets that kids can use for their lives.

The app I mentioned in the podcast: Photomath: https://photomath.net/en/ (gives the solution along with the steps to get there)

CUE is all about the People

www.cue.org

CUE, formally known as Computer Using Educators, just celebrated its 40th anniversary. The panel I shared at the CUE Conference was all about the people. For all of us, it was the people early on that we connected and worked together to make sense of technology not for technology’s sake. But because it can do something that kids cannot do ordinarily in other ways.

The groups that formed years ago and even yesterday help each other to understand the use of technology and all that is available makes it more interesting, possible, and effective for our students and for us to deepen learning.

Information Literacy and Digital Citizenship

Separating fact from fiction is not new but now more important than ever. Giving kids skills to be able to do that is becoming even more important than it was. We have several processes that work. Obviously, when we first went online and all the information was available, librarians mentioned that they can help people look at websites the same way we vetted books when they came into our libraries. So, we look at the author, relevancy, credentials, timeliness, and so on. But if you are looking at primary sources, relevancy may not apply to today’s world. If you are looking at something personal, that is true may not be as important. There are tools and websites that help with that.

The 21st Century Fluency: http://21cif.com/ have wizards that help kids look at different aspects of websites to determine efficacy. There are other groups as well. The idea that kids can have the skills to do that is huge. I’m thinking about a class several years ago with a 5th-grade class that did PowerPoints on some topic they were studying. The last slide said “Thanks to Google!” and that was the way they cited sources. We learned from that that citing sources is important and, hopefully, kids understand that, too. When a kid or anyone does some work, they want to be acknowledged for that work. With Creative Commons, we want people to use our work and pass it on, but we also want to be acknowledged for it. Citing sources is so important.

It also gets to the Fact vs. Fiction thing. If you can find what you are looking for by three or more reliable sources, it’s probably true. If not, it might be questionable. We used to worry about folks using Wikimedia exclusively, but as a place to start is not so bad. From there, check the sources they are referring to. We just want kids to understand that it is easy to create a hoax, whether or not it is, or if it is reliable to use and understand. Jason Ohler said, “We need to teach empathy at a young age.” With empathy, we can be critical and understand different perspectives using the 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Peter Reynolds added another C: compassion.

My book: Information Literacy: Separating Fact from Fiction https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/administrators/p/information-literacy-separating-fact-from-fiction/51756/

Asking good questions to get good answers

http://ow.ly/TTAf30gfqHT

One of the things I have been working on is helping kids ask good questions to get good answers. The need to be able to do the research to get to the questions that they have. That relates to the information literacy and digital citizenship as well. When you can really get to the questions you are interested in and answer them, the whole enterprise becomes more interesting. The Right Question Institute has a process of brainstorming takes it further to get the terms you use online. The hardest thing for teachers is to identify the driving question. Here the kids identify the driving question and there is a lovely process that takes them through to be able to do that.

Right Question Institute: http://rightquestion.org/

Workshop series with Susan Brooks-Young

Brené Brown on Empathy:

Susan and I do workshops on empathy, gratitude, getting focused, kindness, thinking positively, and movement. We did some of the workshops in Oakland. The one that was most fun was “gratitude.” Just simple things like creating a jar and write on a paper that you are grateful that day. Whenever you can pull out a strip to read what you were grateful for. We invited participants to write thank you notes to someone who needs to be thanked.

Increase Well Being website: http://bit.ly/increasewellbeing/

Awakening Wisdom (Ho’ala Foundation)

The Ho’ala Foundation was started years ago in Hawaii by Sister Joan developing a whole system for the school where the climate of the school is supportive of everyone there. I first met Sister Joan a long time ago in Hawaii and learned about Linda Inlay who was the principal there for 18 years. (Linda’s podcast) Linda brought in the philosophy and theory of the Ho’ala Foundation to the River School (middle school) in Napa. I can tell you that these kids are amazing. I was on the board for several years and witnessed the kids sharing their path instead of graduation. They shared how the experience totally changed their lives. The new name for the philosophy is Awakening Wisdom, http://www.awakeningwisdom.org/

I am on the team that has written the curriculum for Awakening Wisdom, the major project of the Ho’ala Foundation for Education that extends social-emotional learning skills to encompass school climate and affects all stakeholders. The program dives deeply into the 4 R’s —  responsibility, respect, responsiveness, and resourcefulness, and supports administrators, teachers, students, parents, and school community members in their exploration and implementation of these important practices.

Let’s share that you are now playing  the ‘ukulele’

Robert and I attended a first (supposed to be beginner’s class) and ended up being in Michael DaSilva’s master class. Michael is a luthier – a person who makes ukeleles.  The people we have met through the classes and performances have been so supportive. Ukelele means “dancing flea.”

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Sara shared a different pronunciation for the ukelele. In the US, we say “you-ka-lay-lee” and in Hawaii, they pronounce it “ooo-ka-lay-lee.” I forgot and said it the US way in the podcast. Now I have to get myself a ukelele and learn how to play. I really enjoyed this conversation with Sara who has been a long-time friend. I’m always surprised about all she does and hope to do more work with her with Awakening Wisdom.

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Sara Armstrong, Ph. D. is an educational consultant, keynote speaker, presenter, and writer working to provide resources and tools for change in education. With over 44 years as an educator, Sara Armstrong has developed and implemented workshops on many topics, including information literacy, digital storytelling, technology integration, global resources for education, and project-based learning. A current focus on wellness and increasing happiness and well-being contribute to joyful learning for teachers and students.

Sara holds two B.A.s—one in English from California State University, Los Angeles, and one in psychology from California State University, Sonoma. She completed her work for a California credential, a Master’s program in leadership and reading, and a Ph.D. in the philosophy of education at the University of California, Berkeley. Sara is a published writer and offers presentations through a variety of venues including keynote addresses, conference sessions, specialized workshops for conferences, or ongoing professional development at a variety of educational venues.

Sara’s work naturally evolved into a passion for project-based learning.  Sara has conducted sessions at many conferences from one hour to several days to a year-long contract helping teachers understand and develop meaningful inquiry-based projects. Over her 44 years as an educator, Sara Armstrong has developed and implemented workshops on many topics, including information literacy, digital storytelling, technology integration, global resources for education and project-based learning. Armstrong has also written technology grant proposals and helped others “groom” their plans. She was the editor of OnCUE, Computer-Using Educator’s journal, and has been the proofreader for Bark! and Storyline magazines. She currently edits The Voice, the newsletter for the Oakland-Piedmont branch of AAUW and is writing the curriculum for Awakening Wisdom, the major project of Ho’ala Foundation.

Sara is an Associate of the Thornburg Center for Professional Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the Global SchoolNet Foundation, the Center for Accessible Technology, as well as Berkeley High School’s Community Partnership Academy and the Ho’ala Foundation for Education Board of Directors. She is a recipient of both of CUE’s highest honors: a Gold Disk and a Platinum Disk.

Sara Armstrong Consulting
www.sgaconsulting.org
saarmst@telis.org 

Twitter: @saarmst
LinkedIn: Sara Armstrong
Facebook: Sara Armstrong
Skype: mizbear

Co-author: Information Literacy: Separating Fact from Fiction
Teacher Created Materials https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/administrators/p/information-literacy-separating-fact-from-fiction/51756/

Co-author: The Invent to Learn Guide to 3D Printing in the Classroom:
Recipes for Success  Available on Amazon –  Print book: http://amzn.to/1pyeaqk
Kindle version: http://amzn.to/1jKZzA0

My Hero: An Educator’s Guide to using My Hero
https://myhero.com/hosted/pdf/educators%20guidev2.pdf

Being a teacher is the best job in the world. Just imagine all the children you impact and made a difference for every day. You may not get paid what you’re worth, but you probably would never do anything else. Right? So, why not start each day being grateful and positive about it.

1. Be happy.

You never know what will happen next when you start each day with a smile. We all have those days where we just don’t want to get out of bed. Try shaking off those feelings and force yourself to smile. I do that sometimes when I’m really sad.  Just walking around my house with a big smile, I can’t stay sad much longer. One time I was crying and I made myself smile. I was smiling and crying at the same time. Pretty soon I couldn’t stop giggling. All that sadness made no sense. It feels so much better to look at the bright side of things.

2. Keep a journal.

Write in your gratitude journal something positive that happened in your class every day. It’s so easy to think of the kid who is having problems and to take those problems home. What if you change your thinking and find something positive that happened with that child? Write it down. Write down as many things you can think of that happened that were special for you or for a child.

3. Write notes.

Take one good thing that happened and give it back to one child a day. Write to them how what they did make a difference for you and others. Reach out to all your children to make sure they feel cared about. A handwritten note means so much to a child. Your classroom is a community. All communities thrive if they are based on relationships that matter. Relationships work if they are based on trust and respect. Showing that you care builds that foundation.

4. Send notes home.

Parents want the best for their children and they want to trust that you care about them as they do. I worked in middle school and parents weren’t as involved as they were when their children were in elementary school. They still care about their children and want them to do the best they can. I wrote notes to my parents when their child did something special. This made a difference in how involved they became. They will want to be part of your community.

5. Share with colleagues.

Make the staff room the center of positivity. I remember walking in the staff room one day and hearing teachers complain about a child. I wanted to find that child and hug them. Our job is to be kind and be there for every child. If there is a child with a problem, there probably is a reason. That child needs that note. Instead, share all the fun and positive things happening in your class with the other teachers. Invite them to come in your class when you are doing an activity you are excited about.

6. Post stories.

Talk about all the positive things happening everywhere you go. Share smiles and stories on the walls, in the halls, at open houses, and on social media. Celebrate in different ways how amazing and kind your kids are. Write a blog and share all the joy. Invite your kids to be guest bloggers telling their stories. Start a podcast show from your room and have the kids interview each other or someone else in or out of the school. Go on social media and share your stories.

You can start small with one note and a journal. That’s what I did. Something happens to you when you focus on being positive and sharing joy. It changes you and your brain. It’s so easy to go negative but it’s not healthy for you. Pause when things start going sour. Reflect on what just happened. Force yourself to smile. Try a few of these ways to spread “intentional positive” all over the place.

Consider “intentional positivity” – this means celebrating all the wonderful things happening in your class, school, and community.