Tomorrow, I have the honor to walk back down bustling hallways filled with eager, nervous faces who can't wait to see who is in their classes and what the year holds. And only teachers report tomorrow! We have to wait a whole other week for our students! However I have always thought of the day after Labor Day as my New Year's Day. It is a time to start over, do something differently, explore what might be possible.
If you know me, you know I am struggling with not returning to the classroom. Full-time administration called, and I had to answer. I have decided, though, this assignment will not prevent me from being a teacher. My classroom and my students may look different and perhaps reach wider than I can anticipate while sitting in my makeshift at-home office on a Monday evening. But I will still teach. Because when I teach, I learn.
So with all this in mind, I share my New (School) Year's Resolutions with you.
1. Get out of my office. My office can be a black hole. There is always another e-mail to read, observation to write, or phone call to answer. Unless meeting with teachers, my office can be a lonely, boring place. I want to spend more time in classrooms, stopping by to see teachers and students in action as much as possible.
2. Co-teach lessons with department members. If I am not in the classroom every day, I still want the chance to try new ideas or tweak old ones. I know many who either co-teach or do demo lessons in their department members' classrooms, and I would like to give this a try too.
3. Keep reading widely. When I was a classroom educator, I read outside my genre comfort zones so that I could always make independent reader recommendations. This practice has introduced me to unexpected surprises (I loved 11/22/63 by King). I won't let myself get complacent now that I don't have to read what my kids like.
4. Keep writing. Blogging...it is going to happen this year. As my writing teacher hero, Peter Elbow, says, "Writing is thinking." I believe that. So now I am going to live it.
5. Stay positive. This one might be the most difficult to keep, and it isn't because I don't love my subject, my schools or my teachers. I adore them. I am a New Jersey public school educator who is being suffocated by bureaucracy. If I can't breathe, it can be hard to muster a smile. But I am going to try, really hard. And when I don't feel so happy, I am going to send e-mails to legislators so they bear the brunt of my frustrations, not my colleagues.
No matter when your first day of school is (or was), I encourage you to take the time to write your New (School) Year's Resolutions. It will keep you focused on what is important and on your goals.
Have an amazing school year!
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