Back to School Goals

Thanks for your congratulations! I'm pretty excited to be a reading specialist this year... but I am a little sad I can't link up my classroom to Teacher Week today! I'm in a shared space and I honestly don't know how much setting up I'll even get to do. You can check out my classroom reveal from last year here, though, or some tips for setting up a new classroom here!

But in the meantime, I'm going to squeeze in a link-up with I {Heart} Recess. Is it just me, or does she have the CUTEST goal sheet designs?

Personally, my goal is essentially to get off of the couch and DO more :)

Organization is always a challenge, but this year in my new position I really want to work out a great way to communicate with my colleagues. I think we can do so much more as a team!

My Planning goal ought to be a little easier now that I have to turn in plans once a week (and I'm only teaching half a day).

Professional: Since kids won't be graded in my small groups and they will likely have plenty of homework from their other teachers, I want to come up with something valuable but hopefully more interesting and fun to help with my Students goal. (So many struggling readers think they HATE reading and I want to change that!) I see some great take-home reading bags for younger students, but haven't found quite what I'm looking for with older kids, so I'm hoping to come up with some!

I'm also brainstorming ways to communicate with parents... email newsletter? blog? Facebook page? Since I'm not their classroom teacher, it will need to be a little different- but I'd love to start some kind of Reading Tips newsletter/blog/etc. for ALL of the parents at our school, not just the intervention kids.

And finally... my motto for the year. Do the best you can with what you have :) I would've loved to have a classroom this year, and I would've loved to be full-time... but I'm in a different kind of position this year and I'm hoping to find the blessings in that!

Link up your back to school goals here, or share them below in the comments!

End of Spring Break Bluuuues…

Do you ever get that Sunday night ugh-I-should-have-gotten-more-done feeling? Well, I have that tonight… multiplied by Spring Break.

It’s amazing how, when I get to a school break, I think about how much I can get done. Sure, I could relax, but it feels like I’ll finally have the time to catch up on all those things I never get to.

And then I end up being a big lazybones.

Again, I didn’t go in to school or finish all my grading or complete home projects like I’d hoped. To be honest, the To Do list is about half done. But I did get to visit some family, surprise one of my students, and take a little time to relax… so I guess that’s something!

To help me out this week, I want to link up with 5 goals for the work week! (You can link up with Jessica and Jenn, too.)

1. Stay under my calorie limit on MFP at least 4 days. (I’ve lost five pounds and counting!)
2. Back up my computer.
3. Post 2 times on my blog. (Gonna be a busy week!)
4. Grade and respond to all my kids’ reading journals.
5. Finish all grading for the last 9 weeks and start my report cards BEFORE the weekend! (The grading pile is getting smaller, but it’s still way too big!)
6. Annnd a bonus goal- get laundry done!

We have some more state testing this week (round 2 of 3 for my poor kids), but I’m excited to see my class again in the morning!

P.S.- Did you share your Two Stars & A Wish yet? :)

One Word Mission for the Year

On Monday, I have a meeting with my principal. She likes to schedule a casual sit down with each teacher around the beginning of the year, just to check in and make goals.

Well, this year, instead of a list of our goals, she asked us to try something different.

We are supposed to think of ONE WORD.

That ONE WORD is our goal, our outlook, our purpose for this year. Essentially, it's taking all the long-windedness of a mission statement and breaking it down to its simplest piece. It looks like the idea started as a Christian new year's resolution idea, but it can work for anything.

The principal gave us an example of her own- BOLD.

Well, I'm supposed to think of one word.

My ideas?
- Organized.
Seriously, this could be my goal for every year for everything for life.
 
- Balance.
I'm doing the classic new teacher thing of spending many many hours working on school work. I need to find a way to be smarter about my time and spend more time for me and my family.
 
- Differentiate.
I think this can be true of how I want to teach better, but also just not being afraid to do my own thing compared to other teachers. I think it can also stand for cutting myself a break when I realize that I don't have to be as good at everything as everyone else is (especially as a new teacher- so hard!)

- Push.
Push the kids by doing more enrichment and more challenges. Push myself to be better and smarter. Push my parents to be involved by making it easier and valuable. Push my colleagues to try new things and collaborate more.

-Build.
Build my knowledge and confidence; build students' knowledge and confidence. Build a community and a passion for learning that will never disintegrate.

I'm leaning towards 'push,' but I'm just not quite sold yet.

If you were picking one word (any word!) on which to focus this school year, what would it be?

Welcome!

Whew. Here I go again.

I have started the blogging train many times, and even dabbled into teacher blogging, but I really haven't done much with it.

Time to try again. I get way too many good ideas and materials from other teachers to not contribute any myself!

Blogging Goals (more for me than you, I promise!):

• I'll try to stick to mostly teaching topics, but still let you get to know me, because some of my favorite teaching blogs are the ones where I feel like I know that person. 
• While I would love to eventually start a TpT or Teacher's Notebook store, I want to make sure I always offer plenty of freebies. I'm in (essentially) my first year of teaching, which isn't the most lucrative profession, and my husband is still in college, so I love finding terrific freebies from other teachers, and I want to be a part of that!
• I don't ever want to spend a lot of posts JUST on promoting my own products or giveaways. It's okay occasionally, but bloggers who do that constantly just drive me crazy.
• I want to blog at least once a week- hopefully more!

I'll post soon telling you a little more about me, and move over the teaching ideas that I have posted previously on my personal blog. Hopefully, you can find something useful!