Okay, so I admit. I am a bit weird at times and I tend to do some really crazy things. However, this year I thought I would challenge myself and write a novel in the month of November in my limited spare time. I cannot believe how rewarded I felt when it was all over, what a challenge.

To answer a few of the frequently asked questions.

Will you let anyone read it? Sadly, no.

How long did it take you to write? About an hour each day. Weekends I spent more time writing.

What do you plan to do now that you are done? I won’t publish it, I just wanted the thrill of doing something difficult.

This year I am going to be offering a monthly parent education series. Here is a copy of the presentation for further review.

I originally had this as the second part of my last post, until I realized it would solidify that I was completely random! So I moved it to its own post.

One of my favorite quotes, I used to have on a poster in my bedroom, on it was a gymnast standing on the balance beam. I am not sure of the significance of the beam. Although, on the bottom of the picture it says: Do not pray for an easy life, pray to be a strong person. I can only think about how that is such a powerful statement.

So I have spent a bit of time reading articles about making students stronger. Reflecting and reorganizing my thoughts as the Director of Technology, but sadly, having little time to write down those thoughts.

Until I wrote an email to a good friend after I hosted several teachers for our Techtober-Fest. As I wrote the email I began to see what my job was suppose to be. Here is a small excerpt:

When I first started teaching, I like most young naive newbie teachers thought my subject area was the most important. Oh how things have changed… As I have progressed through these past three years, I have learned that technology is only a small piece of the puzzle, and each of us contribute to the puzzle… This idea needs to be about giving the WHOLE student a better experience. Building them as an individual who has strengths in many areas but is a good person overall.

So as I stand on this earth (which seems to have kept me quite busy), I reflect each day a little differently now. I am asking myself constantly, how am I making these students a stronger person?

I find myself incredibly busy throughout the month of November. The past two months, I have found them to be a blur, with reflection time but little time to write the reflections into thoughts.

I have been working in my spare time to write my novel for NaNoWriMo, I only have about 2,000 of the challenge 50,000 words, but like any true German/Irish/Spanish/Swiss mutt, I find myself incredibly determined to finish this task. Even if I find myself pulling a college all nighter, okay probably not that dramatic but being the determined me, I want to finish the task at hand. So you might be asking yourself… what are you writing about? What exactly, can you find something that you can talk about in 50,000 words. Well, I decided to write a fiction piece about my time when I studied at Oxford University. Maybe someday I will write a real novel, the topic has yet to be determined.

This year I am going to be challenging myself during the month of November. I will be challenging myself to write an entire 50,000 word novel as part of the National Novel Writing Month. I hope this will be a challenge that will help me explore other avenues and interests, since my friends are on a search for a “hobby”.

So far I have 234 words. I am a bit behind in the challenge, but I hope that I get a chance to complete that task.