My one word for 2020 is going to be RELENTLESS. This came to mind late last fall as I was walking one morning and it was raining, out getting my morning #Fresheratfive walk. Relentless to me means to not stop, to not quit, to keep going in spite of obstacles because “every obstacle is an opportunity waiting to happen”. If you get distracted and let that distraction rule your day then you will stop your pursuit or task at hand. I haven’t done a lot of reading about relentless or looked into what others have said about that word, so this is my perspective at the moment.

My word for 2019 was SOAR, as I considered the high-altitude making slow progress on a number of goals that I had set for myself at the end of 2018, but as I stepped into 2019 it seem like I was soaring into a hurricane of activity. Hurricanes are typically associated with bad things but I had a hurricane of good things happening and didn’t seem to be able to relax and enjoy fully the opportunities that I was faced with as I expected. So my word for 2019 was not realized as I desired as SOAR is much more of a passive word then an active word.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines RELENTLESS as:

“showing or promising no abatement of severity, intensity, strength, or pace”

What am I going to be relentless about?

• I will be relentless about learning.
• I will be relentless about making a difference for students.
• I will be relentless about reveling in the time I spend with my family and friends.

I do many of these things right now so this is not necessarily a goal that I am setting as it is not new but a reminder to not let up and to be present wherever I am.

Between now and the end of June I have three conferences that I will be attending and participating in. First off is the Shared Learning Conference here in Abbotsford. Second, the Digital Learning Symposium, happening in Richmond from April 19-21, where I will be presenting on something Googly as well as Adobe Spark. Then at the end of June, I will be attending ISTE in Anaheim for the very first time at this international conference. I am very much looking forward to this professional development that will happen in a very concentrated time period. But as for other Pro-D I am involved in listening to a number of podcasts regularly (TeachersOnFire, TeachBetterTalk, Educational Duct Tape, Shukes&Giff, StemEveryDayPodcast to name a few, which I very much enjoy and listening makes a difference in my daily practice as well as my daily attitude.

I will also continue to be relentless about self-care because I matter to me and a better me healthwise and in my own mental well-being makes a difference for my students, my workplace and my family.

Relentless is a daunting word, but I am up for keeping it in front of me so that I can strive to be a better me every day this year.

I was listening to a podcast this morning and the guest spoke of a book she was reading, Relentless: Changing Lives by Disrupting the Educational Norm by Hamish Brewer which, as I was walking, opened my Amazon app and ordered it. I had heard of his book earlier this winter break and have not done much thinking about what other people have said about being relentless but now that I’ve gotten this written I will start reading Hamish’s book when it arrives on Monday.

What is your one guiding word for this coming year? Whatever your word is I want you to relentlessly keep it in front of you. Put a Post-it note in your car, at your desk, change the desktop on your computer to reflect your word, and make sure you are sharing your one-word with others around you.

Be Relentless

Bryon Carpenter
January 2nd, 2020