2019 may have been politically and environmentally tumultuous, but my year has personally been a good one. I began the year focusing on LIGHT and I think I’ve managed to find a lightness this year that I haven’t felt for some time.

As I look back across the year some highlights have been:

• Co-organising the Perth book launch of the Flip the System Australia, with Fogarty Foundation’s EDFutures and the Innovation Unit.
• Seeing the publication of articles on the Flip the System Australia book and its message, such as this one and this one.
• The publication of my first solo-authored book, Transformational Professional Learning.
• Co-editing a special issue of the Journal of Education Administration and History, entitled ‘Using metaphors to explore school leadership: Possibilities, problems and pitfalls’.
• Presenting a keynote to the National Coaching in Education Conference.
• Opening the Kings School Research Symposium.
• Continuing to challenge my own assumptions and biases, and to advocate for teacher voice, teacher professionalism and teacher agency.
• Being interviewed for the Habits of Leadership podcast about leading the use of research in schools, for the Teachers’ Education Review podcast about professional learning, as well as for some news articles and radio pieces.
• Taking my first ever long service leave.
• Finishing up at my school after 11 years in order to take up a new opportunity in 2020.
• Travelling to Europe with my family, as well as some more local trips with family and friends.
• Working on powerlifting, including hitting some PBs (116kg trap bar deadlift, 90kg sumo deadlift, 80kg squat, 66kg bench press).

This year has felt really good partly because of what I haven’t done. I’ve said ‘no’ to more things which has meant that those things I have participated in are those I’ve been really excited about. I’ve tried to find more space in my life. Being more intentional about how I spend my time is a work in progress, as I focus on moving from doing all the things to doings things that matter.

This isn’t just the end of the year. It’s also the end of a decade. At the beginning of the 2010s I was in the early stages of pregnancy with my first child. In this last decade I had my two children and raised them through their early years. I started and completed my PhD. I co-edited one book and wrote another. I presented at conferences and events, including AERA in Washington DC, AARE and ACEL. I travelled to NYC on a professional fellowship to investigate coaching in education and improving teacher practice. I started this blog. I won some awards. I contributed to some advisory boards and committees. I held a number of school leadership roles and taught English and Literature to hundreds of students.

Looking back is interesting, but looking forward is even better.

Here’s to the 2020s.