Friday, July 24, 2015

New Year's resolution for a teacher

January never seemed the right time for a resolution for me.  Even though it is the beginning of a calendar year, it falls squarely in the middle of a school year.  Therefore, it is difficult to have the sense of truly starting fresh.  However, the school year is a different story.  With new students and new things to teach, I have a chance to plan a change that might actually happen.  So rather than make a resolution in January, I think August makes more sense.

1. Personal - I resolve not to let myself and my family go health wise.  School is tough, and while I can do a good job getting started with exercise, healthy eating, quitting diet coke, etc.  in the summer, when school starts back it is significantly more difficult.  I do not want to jump back into drinking 5-6 diet cokes a day and eating much less healthy foods because my schedule is tighter.  I think I can keep this, but I have to make these things a priority.  This may require some stress relieving techniques to stay on an even keel, but I think it will be worth it.

2. Professional - I resolve not to have the papers pile up - I will deal with them, file them, and avoid the chaos.  Easier said than done.  However, if I don't tell myself it is only a couple of things at the beginning of the year, I think I can stay on top of it.  I am teaching geometry this year, so I will have papers to grade, but there are only 6 students in the class.  If I can get on top of this with the 6, I should be able to continue the habit as the class gets bigger in future years.

I am only setting one goal in each venue.  I will, however, be working to keep my stress level down and to stay calm and on top of things.  My goals reflect this overall state of being, and I think I should be able to work toward this in future weeks.  We will see whether this way of writing a resolution helps more than doing so in January.  I am thinking it will.

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