Do One Thing and Do It Well

Ever feel overwhelmed as a provider of online teaching or services with the sheer amount of resources that are out there?  Digital resources, online websites, interactive games, apps, flashcards, ebooks, embedded materials, screen sharing, remote access, use of a documentation camera… This list seems endless. As the CEO of Lighthouse Therapy, a provider of online therapy services for almost 10 years, and a Speech-Language Pathologist for 26 years, COVID 19 helped people to see me as an expert on remote services and resources overnight.

Malcolm Gladwell, in the book Outliers, stated you need 10,000 hours to master a skill.  This is a number I have surpassed long ago as an online therapist. I feel like God knew what he was doing when he prompted me to start this company in 2018.  He knew my knowledge would be needed, and he put me in the right place to be able to offer that assistance. As a result, my team and I have been able to provide professional development and coaching to numerous teachers and therapists alike. Throughout these training sessions, my recommendation has always been to master one skill and then move on to the next. 

Now, I realize you are not going to go into providing online or remote learning as an expert.  Do that one thing and do it well.  I am not talking about the content you are presenting; you know what you are teaching and have already mastered that!  I am talking about the way you are presenting it to your students. If you understand screen sharing, then screen share, if it is the use of a particular software or digital resource, then use that.  Get comfortable with that method until you feel like you have mastered it.  (Most likely it won’t take you 10,000 hours.) Then try something new and add that new format to your repertoire. Before you know it, you will have found your sweet spot and have waded through to the other side.  Lastly, give yourself some grace.  No one saw this coming and there is no way you could have predicted it.  Do the best you can, and your students will learn.  And so will you!