Tannenbaum Tech - 4/18/2021: Trusting in Your Decisions

This year has truly been a whirlwind. So many amazing things have happened in the past few months that have truly transformed my world. I sought to take the challenges that I grew from in 2020 to the next level. Challenging myself was truly about going beyond the fear. I have learned in the last few months that doing so was helping me to level myself up, But one of my newer realizations is that I not only believe in myself more, but I trust the decisions that I make.

It is so easy to second guess yourself, but all that leads to is rumination. The should haves, could haves, they can tear you apart. As I have embarked this year on my identity journey with Lindsay Titus' Ignite Your Legacy course, I have begun a process of trusting myself in ways that I could have never imagined. I have begun to trust the journey. This has lead to many amazing results.

Jake Miller of the EduDuctTape podcast calls this phenomenon adjacent possible moments. He describes how one experience can lead to many others, revealing new possibilities that you might not have been aware of previously. Indeed , the past two years of my life have been the result of many adjacent possible moments.

If I hadn't participated in that Twitter chat in 2019, I might not have put it out to the world that I wanted to write a book. That one experience led me to start writing a book that will be published next month.
If I hadn't watched the Teachers on Fire roundtable that one December morning, I might not have gotten that push to put my manuscript out there and sent it to publishers.
If I hadn't responded to Darrin Peppard's tweet about sharing your story for his newly established publishing company, I would have never met him and started my book's publishing journey.

In the past few days, another sequence of these adjacent possible moments or trusting my journey occurred. In early February after seeing a Wixie webinar post on Facebook, I reached out to Wixie to find out about presenting a Wixie webinar. This started a new amazing journey for me. I was so excited to hear back quickly from the team and they asked me to send over a few topic suggestions with descriptions. I sent them two sessions and we scheduled one for March and one for May.

A little over a month ago, I presented my first session Using Wixie so That Littles CAN create. It was such a great experience and after the session, Lindie Kolk suggested that I submit a proposal for an ISTE Early Learning Network Playground presentation. Here was an opportunity that I hadn't even been aware of. I had applied to present a session at ISTE earlier in the year and was disappointed not to be selected. Now, I had another opportunity. I worked on my proposal and sent it in. Guess what? I found out a few days ago that I got accepted and I will now get to present at ISTE21 Live! Wow!

You never know where a decision can lead you. Next week on April 24th, the Teach Better Team is having their third Teach Better 12 hour Live. Each time that they have held this event, it has changed my life. After the first one, I applied and became a Teach Better founding ambassador, After the second one, I discovered the Teach Better Administrator mastermind. So many amazing opportunities have revealed themselves from meeting people in that group and our interactions. In fact, I just got my first paid professional development opportunity outside of my district this summer from an interaction there! So definitely, check that out.

Another great opportunity is the Code Breakers' Power Summit on April 24th and 25th. I still have a few free passes. I am presenting on the 24th at 10:25 AM. But I am only one of so many amazing presenters. DM me and get a free pass- who knows where that will lead. But because this weekend isn't jam packed enough, the first ever EduClubhouse conference will also be held. I am facilitating a session there at 12 PM EST. Join me using this link. We will be discussing Creating with Littles.