Day 62 – Happy New Year

This is really the beginning of the year for all of us in school-land. So, I’m making resolutions. Not to lose weight, get fit or pay down my debt; although those don’t sound like bad ideas, my resolutions are more professional than personal. I have to set professional goals at school, and while some of my resolutions might double as my goals, these are purely things that involve maintaining balance and sanity in my life.

1. Mark Less: This one is tricky. There is the school of thought that says that students value only what ‘counts’. Then, there is the idea that students should be allowed lots of practice, and it should only be the test that counts. I lean toward the first of these, although my gut tells me the second one is right. I’m going to have to find a practical way to implement this practice stuff so that students do the work, even if I’m not going to ‘count’ it all.
2. Plan Ahead: I usually start the year by planning ahead, and I’ve always got a year-plan. But, somewhere long before the end of the year the planning becomes more day-to-day. I go into survival mode. If I can successfully learn to mark less, I should have more time to plan. After I have my year plan complete, I’d like to do some more detailed planning one month at a time.
3. Participate in online PLNs: Over the last few months I’ve discovered the wonders of twitter. I have colleagues across the world to learn from. I want to learn from this wealth of knowledge and experience without getting lost in it all.
4. Organize: If you’ve ever seen my classroom between mid-September to June, you’d know I’m Miss Messy. I’d like this to be the year I finally win the paper battle.
5. Delete Email: Today I spent three or four hours deleting email from the last year. There were close to 2000 emails in my inbox. I got it down to 72. I have to do this mass deleting at least three times a year and it’s a time consuming pain in the butt. I’d like to do the deleting every day so I don’t have to waste this precious personal time again. I think these last two go together. I’d like to have this organized filing system so I could keep everything, but I don’t and it just piles up.

This is the kind of post that’s more for me than anyone else. I’ll return to it in a couple of weeks and remind myself to delete email and straighten up my desk before it gets too out of control.

This is the last post of the summer. Sixty-two days went by quickly while I was having fun. I’m going to continue to blog occasionally, hopefully once or twice a week. Happy new year my friends!