School Year's Resolutions

Being a teacher causes you to have a totally different calendar than the rest of the general population. Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks are two of your favorite times of the year because you get a well-deserved break. Spring Break is for visiting family you don't get to see too often. While Spring cleaning and big household projects are usually done during the summer months when you actually have time. And finally, probably the biggest difference is as a teacher is "New Year's Day." Yes we celebrate with champagne, confetti, and a kiss when the clock strikes 12 on January 1, but that really isn't a teacher's New Year. Our new year starts on the first day of school. A chance to start your classroom over again. New ideas, new materials, new students.

Every August, like every January, I think about the things I want to improve on from the last year and how I can make myself better. Only in August those items are school related and usually don't involve counting calories or heading to the gym. I make "School Year's Resolutions," and like New Year's resolutions, I tend to follow through with them until around October, if I'm lucky... Yet every year I still make these new promises to myself. Maybe this year I'll stick with them.

2009-2010 School Year's Resolutions:

1. I will NOT get behind in grading papers. I will keep the kids' grades updated hopefully every week, BUT will not go two weeks without entering a new grade.

2. My desk will have some sort of organization to it. No piles of ungraded papers in various spots on the desk and floor...see resolution #1

3. I will try my very best to not let those one or two VERY difficult students get to me. I will try anything I or my team teachers can think of to get positive results out of him/her.

4. I will not complain about my co-workers and their teaching habits. However I am aloud to complain IF something they do affects me negatively! (Gotta leave a little room to vent)

5. I will not hate my advisory. (Advisory is like a homeroom class at the end of the day...I have the same students every day for the last 25 minutes, and EVERY year so far they have been hell to end my day. This year it will NOT be like that!)

6. I will NOT go school supplies crazy and buy more of the same thing...I have more pens and sharpies, and rulers and notepads, and fun office gadgets than anyone I know!

7. I will not talk too much about my upcoming wedding. I will wait until someone specifically asks me a question to bring up the topic. (this one will actually be hard...I'm kinda excited and tend to over-talk it I think :) )

8. I will try not to get frustrated with all the IEP meetings for my special ed and gifted students. (Since I have a subject that can be easily modified...I have ALL the students, no matter what their disability, and I love them...but that means that I have to attend ALL the meetings...ugh!)

9. I will limit myself to only bringing home projects to grade. I enjoy my evenings and need that time to step away from school stuff. But projects tend to take me a long time to grade...so grading a few of those each night is ok.

10. I will use my planning period wisely. I tend to take that time to chill out and do a crossword. That, as Dwight from The Office puts it, "is stealing time from the company" (or in my case the school). I will use my planning period to grade papers so I won't get behind!

And there you have it. 10 promises I'm making to myself for my New Year. Maybe I'll re-evaluate these after the real New Year and see how I've done...