Every year, January brings a montage of ads, magazine stories and other media related to new beginnings, resolutions, change, and self-empowerment. They seem to hit all parts of our lives from weight control to exercise to work-life balance to new job opportunities. It often starts with personal, self-reflection about what we want to change or accomplish moving forward. Keeping resolutions and staying focused takes hard work and lots of support from family and friends. Too often, February and March arrive leaving our January commitments as foggy memories. How many times have we said, “Yeah, I was going to do that starting in January, but…” As educators and participants in professional development, we sometimes suffer from the same “January Syndrome.” We commit to putting what we learned into action, but, by May or June, we think “Oh, that’s right. I was going to try that technique I learned during the winter PD sessions. But….”

Just as personal New Year’s resolutions need support, so do the educator-related skills we learn throughout the year. Here are five tips to help us along the way:

1. Find a “Critical Colleague” - someone who will commit to partnering with you to help put things into action, debrief about results, and brainstorm potential adjustments. Set a regular time to meet.

2. Publicize or "go public" with what you want to try. Share new ideas about students, learning, and teaching. Model transparency.

3. Seek or invent ways to stay connected to other PD participants or session topics. Start informal discussions or action research groups.

4. Take chances and support risk-taking. Too often, fear of unknown results keeps us from trying new strategies, even if someone else has already proven that they work.

5. Create a safe, welcome environment for others to join. When they see your openness to use what you learned, to share the results, and accept and support all ideas, they will naturally want to join you. Encourage them.

These five tips all focus on educators as learners and members of a greater community. Some of the best tips, techniques, and strategies I use today, I learned from other teachers who were willing to create an environment for learning that had influence throughout our whole school.