Making a habit of audacity

And if you’re paralyzed by a voice in your head/It’s the standing still that should be scaring you instead/Go on and/Do it anyway

I got a little (just a little) pushback from a coworker yesterday for my recent blogpost in which I had stated that I had lied to my prospective, and now current, administrators. To refresh, when asked what job I was looking for, I described my ideal job, not the minimum one I would be willing to take. It’s a matter of interpretation of the question, I suppose.

Also a matter of hyperbole. I use hyperbole more than anybody else in the universe as people who follow me on Twitter are already most likely aware.

Here’s the interesting thing: I’m generally a super-cautious person. It’s the kind of stuff that’s ruled my life. If there’s a safe route to take, I’ve generally taken it.

That all changed about three years ago, though.

I’m thankful every single day that I went to BarCamp Philly and met the people that would become the Edcamp Philly team. Not just because of the opportunities that it’s provided to me, but because it showed me that when those opportunities spring up, I should take them, because, amazingly enough, I’m more capable than I had previously thought.

I went to a workshop earlier this year on using Improv techniques in the classroom. It was a great couple of days. One of the things that we talked about is how in Improv, the biggest rule is that you always say “yes” to the situation before you. As soon as you say no, the whole thing falls apart.

I realized how very much that has held true for me since I started working on this Edcamp thing. That’s the moment at which I stopped saying no to the challenges before me and started saying yes to pretty much every new opportunity that’s been put before me.

Just about a year ago, I said this:

It seriously came out of nowhere, but I realize now that it’s the same thing as always saying yes. If a big idea occurs to me, or if I’m approached with an amazing opportunity, I still take the time to think about it carefully, as is my nature. But now that careful thought isn’t really about whether or not I should attempt the task placed before me, it’s about strategizing and figuring out how to make it work.

That’s not to say that I’m not freaking out the entire time. As I said in my ED Talk writeup, I was very shaky right up until I went into the talk itself and all the way through it. But I knew that I had to make the attempt.

Three years ago, I was, quite frankly, very dissatisfied with my job. I was pretty good, but I had felt myself stagnating in the work for the previous year or so already. I wasn’t growing anymore, and that terrified me. Stagnation to me felt like a first step toward burnout.

Just the act of committing to putting on Edcamp Philly changed all that. During that year, I started dipping my toes into providing professional development for my staff. I met the people from Burlington, and they believed that I was capable of taking on this new task of being an Instructional Technology Specialist when, internally, I wasn’t so sure, but I was willing to try.

While I had serious struggles that year, by the end I knew that I was definitely in a place that would provide me tremendous opportunities for professional growth and was firmly within my own interests. I had my first taste of presenting at a conference that year, and even though I got terrible reviews from some people, I knew that I enjoyed it and could get better.

That summer ran my first workshop for somebody other than my school district, and I helped recruit some great people into my district.

Year 2 as an ITS for me was about pushing myself even more both in my school and outside of it. We established the Edcamp Foundation. I presented at MassCUE and (gulp!) EduCon. I spoke in front of 600 people at the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum and didn’t die.

This Summer I spent more weekdays either attending or providing professional development than not. I worked with people from Burlington, Antioch University New England, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and EdTechTeacher. I cowrote an article on Edcamp that should pop up somewhere in the near future.

This coming year, I’m launching a plot of 1:1 iPads with my fourth and fifth grade teachers. I’m going to teach an online grad class for the first time ever. Both of these things are going to be terrifying and new and I can’t wait to see how they go.

I’m listing this here not to brag, but because I constantly think to myself that if this stuff is happening to me, it could happen to anybody. I’m not the greatest teacher on the planet in any sense. But with a little bit of luck, a lot of work, and taking opportunities when they present themselves to me, I’m in such an amazingly different place now than I was just three years ago.

And, again, I’m just so thankful.

I’m thankful to my amazing wife, who supports me in everything even when she tells me I work too hard. I’m thankful to my Edcamp Foundation board members who took me along for the ride with them and then entrusted me with the Chairmanship. I’m thankful to my district administrators who placed their faith in my abilities two years ago and continue to do so to this day. I’m thankful for amazing coworkers who will try new things with me and push me to be a better teacher. I’m thankful to my students for making me smile and laugh and furrow my brow and worry. I’m thankful to the people outside of my district who have brought me in to run professional development for them. I’m thankful to the Edcampers around the country that have welcomed me with open arms. I’m thankful to the people online who take the time to read the things I write here and on Twitter.

I’m thankful for a fulfilling life as a teacher.

Yesterday I was presented with a possible huge new opportunity. I’ve done a bunch of hemming and hawing and hedging my bets so far. But at the same time I’ve been thinking, and plotting, and figuring out how I could make it work.

I’ll probably say yes.