Seth Godin asks, what did you ship this year?
- * Completed and passed my NQT year.
- * Took my first class through their 5th year of schooling, sharing many achievements with them.
- * Presented at TeachMeet BETT 2010 on class blogging.
- * Was selected for, and attended Google’s Teacher Academy UK.
- * Presented at the Google Teacher Academy on using Google Docs.
- * Presented at three conferences to all Birmingham’s Primary NQTs on using technology in classrooms.
- * Contributed three articles to ‘The PCGE Survival Guide‘.
- * Worked with Rising Stars on a new I.C.T. resource.
- * Shared practice using Google docs for a Vital ‘Teachshare’ online presentation.
- * Started our school radio station.
- * Continued this blog, starting conversations with educators from around the world.
It is easy to measure things like this that you ‘shipped’, but Seth Godin himself wrote in ‘Linchpin‘: “The easier it is to quantify, the less it’s worth.”.
Whilst I do feel that these are good achievements, thinking back it is those little immeasurable things that I value the most. I’ve done a lot of personal development this year, and made many little immeasurable differences in myself and to colleagues, children I work with, and friends; to me that’s what counts the most.
Over the holiday I was reflecting on the year with a Geography teacher friend who trained when I did. This time last year we had a heated debate about how much difference one person could make in teaching, with him highly critical of my apparent idealism. Fast forward a year and he is now Head of Geography and has started a Geography A level course for the first time at his school. I guess a bit of my idealism rubbed off.
Inspiring others to ‘ship’; in this career that has to be the best achievement.
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