With the beginning of the new year my PLN is going crazy over this “#oneword” movement for 2016.  Folks are committing to using one word to motivate them to action during this new year.  I guess its the “new” new years resolution.  I told myself that I was not going to make a new year’s resolution this year because I started a new resolution at the beginning of the school year: to use what I learned over the summer to improve engagement with families.  Well, I’ve made significant progress with that original goal, but as we all know, we tend to lose focus once we get a couple days, weeks or months away from setting our original goal.  I started the school year off on fire, but have lost some steam as so many of my other daily responsibilities have required my focus.

As the calendar has turned to a new year, I’m turning my focus back to improving engagement, but as I’ve read so many of my colleagues’ blog posts as winter break concludes I figure I can use #oneword to help me finish my goal this school year and propel me to do even more throughout 2016.

This winter break I was blessed to be able to spend some real quality time with my family.  The connected educator in me would not let me fully disconnect from Twitter or Voxer, but I did long enough to engage my own family.  We drove from Maryland to Ohio and back and 15 hours round trip is a lot of time together.  My boys and I talked about our favorite snacks, video games, farm animals, and a variety of other topics that sprout into the minds of 5 and 6-year-old boys.  The ride was just one cool moment with my kids.  We stayed in a hotel with a pool and each morning we spent at least an hour in the pool.  The boys using me as their wrestling dummy and diving board in the middle of the pool, me breaking free, and them swimming after me to get their daddy pool toy back.  I’m not sure how many times we did that over a three day span.  We were also able to enjoy this unseasonably warm winter weather and race and chase each other through the neighborhood and local park.  And as I’m writing this post my boys are teaching me all the different characters and adventures that they can experience in their new Xbox Lego Dimensions game.

I tell you all this as a background for my #oneword for 2016, Present.  I enjoyed the little moments with my kids this break as I was disconnected from my phone and computer and was simply present with them.  I want to be present with them and enjoy the moments that may seem little, but will hopefully allow me to learn how to be a better dad for them.  So my new goal is to be present when I’m at home.  Engaged with my family as much as possible because I know that before I know it, it won’t be cool for dad to be present.

Present is also what I continue to vow to be for my students, colleagues, and parents at school.  I thought about engagement as my #oneword, but that’s too much of a buzzword in education these days.  Present, yeah that’s good.  Enjoying each and every moment that I get with the people that mean the most to me.  Put the cell phone down, turn off the TV, walk away from the computer, and be Present.  If I forget my #oneword, I can always refer to the powerful words of Propaganda in his spoken word poem Be Present: