A final reflection on 2017

As the year winds down, it’s a time for a final reflection of all that has happened and to make plans for the new year. 2017 was a year to remember, full of many personal and professional opportunities and achievements. 

My 3 words for 2017 were Pivot, Go, and Grow. These words truly guided me as the seasons changed, as one school year ended and another began, and as I leaned in to all that would come in 2017. I think as you read through my reflections, you’ll see these words echoing throughout. 

One of the highlights of the year was finally getting to meet in person some of the members of the Women in Education Leadership Voxer Group. This year marked the third year of the group, and we are still going strong. 

I, along with Michele Hill, Lisa Dabbs, and Debbie Campbell, had the opportunity to present Leadership is a Team Sport at the 2017 ASCD Empower Conference in California. Since we are literally spread across the country, we did all of our planning online through Google Docs and Hangouts. 

It was amazing to share our story and ideas with a packed room and get to hang out with the wonderful ladies from the #WELvoxer group as well as other friends from across the country! 

Something new that I did this year was a launch of a 21-day twitter bootcamp online course. (Look for it to re-launch in January 2018!) The course is designed for those who are familiar with the “flow” of twitter and the basic uses of it; it’s not for beginners . The awesome participants in the last bootcamp gave me good and useful feedback, and my favorite part was hearing regularly from participants that they had learned so many new things. I’m really looking forward to hosting the bootcamp again next month!

On a personal note, my youngest daughter graduated from high school, and we sold our home of 13 years and moved into a new house that we call our “empty nest cottage.”  I absolutely love our new home, but we’re still not completely organized, even after 6 months.

An amazing thing happened in 2017 while in our new house, and that was that we got snow in Alabama before Christmas. On December 8th, it snowed for 12 hours. It was nothing like anything I had ever experienced - it felt like I was in a Hallmark movie!

The byline of my blog reads, Encouraging and empowering others to be their very best. It’s how I define my purpose, and it’s the reason I joined the 2017-18 Aspiring Leaders cohort for Dream Big Mentorship. The opportunity to give back to the profession and support those who aspire to be school leaders is incredibly rewarding and important. We need strong leaders in schools, and they need to be prepared as much as possible for the awesome responsibility of school leadership. 

Webinar for the Aspiring Leaders Cohort 

Can't see the video above? Click HERE

This summer marked the 3 year anniversary of starting the Compelled Bloggers Community with Craig Vroom. It’s been a wonderful blogging journey of support, camaraderie, and pure joy to be a part of everyone’s lives and have them a part of mine. 

In March, we collaborated as a group to write 74 ways to build relationships with students, which became one of the most popular posts on my blog for 2017.

And finally, a very proud moment in 2017 was being recognized as the NASSP / AASSP Alabama Assistant Principal of the Year. It has been an exciting and humbling time, and I proudly represent educators across the state who are working hard to make things great for kids. 

As we head into the last week of the year, I hope you will take some time to reflect on your year. There will always be ups and downs, just remember to celebrate your successes as much as you work to fix your failures. 

I'm looking forward to 2018. Let me know how I can support you in the new year.