Being nudged professionally is a blessing and a challenge. I love the excitement of new ideas—the “Oh man, I’ve never thought about that before!” or “Wow! I want to try that out!” Seeing things on Twitter, reading other people’s blogs, talking with colleagues…all of these push my thinking. But sometimes, it can become overwhelming. I want to try everything, perfect everything, utilize everything.
But today, I need to take a deep breath and remember the question: What is my purpose for ______? When the waves of amazing ideas crash over me, threatening to drown me, I return to purpose.
Deep breath.
Okay, maybe it means I won’t be trying out that new anecdotal system this week. Maybe it means I won’t be using that incredible website tomorrow. Maybe it means I won’t be implementing that structure with my book club when we meet on Tuesday. However, depending on purpose, maybe I will. That’s the beauty of this particular lens. Purpose brings clarity and helps me plan and prioritize.
So, deep breath. What’s my purpose?
Thanks to Stacey, Anna, Beth, Tara, Dana, and Betsy at Two Writing Teachers for creating a place for writers to share their work and hosting the March Slice of Life Story Challenge!
growing lifelong learners 
Your post is a good reminder! There really are sooo many great ideas and things going on! Remembering our purpose can help us target the ideas that will get us there.
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keeping our purpose in mind is so important! thank you for this reminder!
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Wonderfully insightful! We can’t try everything. Having a clear purpose for the new (or even old) things we want to try in our classrooms in important. Thank you for teh reminder to looks at new ideas with a purpose in mind.
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This is so true! We had a technology person at my school who gave me great advice when I came back from a technology conference all fired up with things to try. He said, “Pick one thing to try. Plan now and start it next school year. I’ll be happy to help you.” I did that and chose to start blogging with my class. It was great, though not without bumps in the road. Deep breath.
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I often feel the same way—even after many years of teaching. It’s the thing that keeps us excited and moving forward but also the thing that can overwhelm us. So good to bring yourself back to “purpose.” That would be a very good OLW.
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This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear this week. Thank you! With so much information available at our fingertips, I want to know it all, use it all, do it all…but that is unrealistic. Thanks for reminding me that purpose is what should drive all I am trying to learn, know, use, and do!
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I so wish that people had this conversation more often with new teachers. They are often so excited, so eager, and so hard on themselves when they can’t keep up with everything they want to try. Such an important conversation you’ve started here….
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