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I’ve never been one for making huge New Year’s resolutions. I’m much more into New School Year resolutions in August. By January, I’m prepping for speech season and just praying I don’t gain 10 pounds eating desserts at Saturday speech meets every weekend.

One type of resolution I can get into is the #oneword movement.

I’ve put some thought into my word. Risk. Attention. Focus. I finally settled on Yes.

Yes to taking chances.

Yes to fewer grades and more conferences.

Yes to giving students more options.

Yes to my own kids when they ask me to play.

Yes to taking that walk or lifting weights.

Yes to leading more workshops and presentations.

Yes to watching that movie with my husband and doing nothing else.

Yes to calling my dad more often.

Yes to finishing my novel this year.

Yes to living in the moment.

Tomorrow I’ll link this post to a hyperdoc that asks my students to choose and design a poster for their own #oneword. I’m sure they’ll love mine and try to take every possible advantage of it.  To those beautiful students of mine, I assure you: I will still tell you no sometimes. No, we will not go on a field trip to McDonalds. No, we are not going to have a “free day.”

But you propose something that can connect to learning and/or English–you never know, I might just say yes.