Goals for 2012-2013

I really need to stop this late night blogging pattern of the past couple nights.  The past two days have been jam packed with school related projects, back to school outlet mall shopping, fall baseball games, and a wonderful dinner with my parents.  Tomorrow I am heading into school to spend the day working on my classroom, as my boys are with my parents.  I am hoping to finish up my Math Focus Wall I have been busy working on and get some other things set up in my room.

This coming year is going to be a wild and crazy ride for me with implementing a new curriculum, Carnegie Learning, and a new personalized learning delivery model.  Can you say overwhelming and beyond exciting and innovative?  I am so energized for this coming school year, but will feel better once I feel I have a handle on how this will all work.

This year my classroom goals will really be driven by the initiatives that my district has chosen to undertake, including Personalized Learning Model with Carnegie Learning Curriculum, Standards Based Grading District Committee and Lesson Study Facilitation.

Stop:

• Spending so many late evenings at school.  Last year I felt that I was NEVER home to help my two younger sons with their homework  due to all the after school meetings I had and trying to keep up with everything in my classroom.   I really need to change this year.  My goal is to pick one night a week to stay late at school, two max.  I need to make sure I remember that my own kids need to come first and they need guidance on their own homework.  Trying to keep working mommy guilt at bay as many of you know all too well.
• Wasting time an energy on things I cannot control.  I must repeat the Serenity Prayer to myself on a daily basis and really remember why it is I chose to be a teacher.  I also need to keep in mind that everything I do needs to be for and about my students.
• Spending time on things that do not directly impact my goal achievement.  It is so easy to get sidetracked on the day to day classroom minutiae and lose sight of what is really important.

Continue:

• Co-teaching.  Last year the sped teacher and I really became more effective working together after taking a co-teaching class together, but due to my having a student teacher 4th quarter things we weren't really co-teaching at the end of the year.  I am really excited because we will be co-teaching both afternoon math classes this year.  Looking forward to taking our co-teaching to the next level!
• Using learning stations for review and differentiation in the classroom.  Also using them more in my Core Plus class.
• Working with my 7th grade math team during PLC time to implement our new program to fidelity and working together on compacting and assessment.

Start:

• Researching and figuring out the best way to do conferencing with my students.  This will be an integral part of our personalized learning model.
• Consistently doing some form of daily review with my students.  I started off strong with warm-ups last year, but then kind of fizzled out at the end of the year.
• Really focusing on some of the things I learned during my Guided Math Book Study this summer.  I am really excited about my Math Focus Wall and really making my classroom a numeracy rich environment for my students this year.
• Implementing Carnegie with fidelity and really focusing on the Common Core and Standards for Mathematical Practice.  I am so lucky to have a great curriculum to help me implement common core the way it is meant to be.