Changes are coming!

What I want to talk about today is what I need to change for the upcoming year. We all know about the 'New Year's Resolution' junk. Well I am not a believer in that, but I do think it is a great time to sit back and reflect on what you would like to do differently in the following year. Most everyone is going to be taking a peek at the diet/exercise fad in the following weeks, with me, I made the conversion to a healthier me last May and have done well. I have lost over 90 lbs., also ran in 4 5k's and can now run the entire thing without stopping. (In May I could barely run 1 minute without taking a break). So I am not going into the new year with a new diet or anything like that. What I am going to change is things in my classroom. So here is my list of things I want to change.

1. Organization: I have a problem with this. I will have everything organized and in its place. After about two hours in the classroom it looks like a paper bomb went off and strewn paper all over the place. I will get it cleaned up by the end of the day (at least have it in piles), then the next day it happens all over again. I worked with a teacher a few years ago and no matter what time you went into her room it was imaculate. Everything had a place and it was in its place. I don't know how she did it, but I will find out how by the time I retire.

2. Communicate with Parents: I don't do this enough (if at all). But I vow to change that this semester. I hope to communicate with each one of my students parents by the end of the semester for either something they are doing good or poorly with. This is going to be hard, because I am not a phone person, I would rather not talk on the phone if I had the choice. But it's not about me, it's about the kids.

3. More projects: My creativity level is not where it should be, and so I steal a lot of ideas from teachers. And I plan to do more stealing in the following months, because I need to get these kids doing projects and not just more homework. They need to see where this stuff is used in everyday life. So teachers out there, beware I coming to steal your ideas.

4. More problem solving: I am not a big problem solving person, but I know it needs to be one of the core things that we teach. I don't like them and I know the kids don't like them, but ready or not kids, here they come. I need to integrate more 'real world' challenges to them in the hopes of allievating that question of 'When are we ever going to use this'

5. To not fail anyone: This one is hard, because I believe that if a kid doesn't do any work they deserve to get a failing grade. But my problem is that I don't do enough to push that kid to do his homework. At our school we have a ton of apathy and I am going to change the ways in which I approach these kids. I will push them until they either do their homework or it's the end of the semester. I am not going to pass everyone, only if they deserve it, but I will work harder at getting these kids to do their work.

6. I will not complain (as much): I have had the tendency to complain about things. Well now is the time where that complaining is going to stop (slow down) and I will help change the things I can change.

7. Read more: I love to read, it's just that I don't have a whole lot of time to read. But talking with one of my tweeps (@mathheadinc) who read my blog and suggested I read a book called Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (http://t.co/kGXtG9oC). So I went to the library yesterday and borrowed it. I am now reading it and it seems to be pretty good. Thank you @mathheadinc. I vow to read more non-fiction books so if you have any great non-fiction books that you think I need to read (mostly about education) please let me know.

Thanks for reading. You can always follow me on twitter @mrlove314
Love^2