Friday 3 October 2014

30-Day Blogging Challenge: Day 30: Be Brave

Day 30: What would you do (as a teacher) if you weren't afraid?

Four days later, I can finally pull this post out of drafts and finish it.

I've had a lot of trouble coming up with content for this final post of the challenge and have consequently been avoiding finishing it up.

The only class rule in Room 209 when my students arrived this year was, "Be Brave". In order to do anything great, we all have to be brave and willing to take risks, even look stupid sometimes.

I think I have been brave the past several years and taken on new responsibilities and challenges. I have already spent time on this blog reflecting on the awesome directions that has taken me.

If I weren't afraid, I would fight through my awkwardness and self-doubt and reach out to people I admire. I would approach people I admire and speak to them with confidence, sharing my perspective. This is a perfect reminder for me on the eve of GAFE (Google Apps for Education) Ottawa, where I will be meeting some members of my online PLN for the first time. Usually when I meet someone I admire, I fan-girl really hard. I forget how arms work and they fly around my body strangely. I want to gobble up the fear and come across as my *normal* self when meeting others, and not as my totally awkward first-impression self. I also want to find someone with Google Glass and be brave enough to ask them to try it out.

I've always been a little afraid to put my thoughts, ideas and reflections out into the world. Doing this challenge has helped me a lot. I've lived, "Don't worry, be crappy" and "Creation is king". I've put thirty posts out into the blogosphere and have connected more deeply with people and met some new people. I've enjoyed the challenge and facing my fears of exposing myself.

Stay tuned, I think a few of us might be putting together a new blogging challenge soon!