Embrace what you don't know

My wife sends me emails almost daily with quotes that are either made to make me smile or make me think.  She is a master at gauging my emotions for the day and knowing just what I need.  Sometimes the quote helps me focus on the good things in my day and sometimes they make me smile to get me back on track.  Recently she sent me the one above that made me think, and I like what I thought.

Often, we do things the way we have always done them because it's easy.  It's comfortable.  It's predictable.  It's safe.  Even more, we are in the days where doing things the way we've always done them just isn't good enough.  But trying something new can be scary.  You may even keep it to yourself until after you have made the attempt.  And that's alright.  Take a chance.  Try something new.  What's the worst that can happen?  (I must be honest.  I took that last line from the title of a recent blog, linked above, by @jon_wennstrom.)  The worst that can happen is that you have modeled how to recover from a failure with your students and your colleagues.  Don't we learn best from our failures?

So I challenge you to try something new this week.  Maybe it's joining twitter or voxer.  Maybe it's writing and sharing your first blog.  Maybe it's incorporating music or a brain boost into your class.  Just try something new, anything, and see what kind of impact it has on the learning of your students.  And then when you're done, reflect on it, share it, and learn from it.  I promise you that it will be a powerful experience.