A New School Year = New Goals!!!!

Tomorrow marks the official start for my school district for the 2017-2018 school year.  I am really excited to be officially in the classroom again returning to the school I was at in the fall of last year.  A lot has changed since leaving the classroom last December:  realizing teaching was still my true love for a career, realizing that the school district I left was in fact the best fit for me and my home, and finally making a commitment to myself to not overload with things that overshadow my passions; easier said than done of course!

My teaching schedule this year includes Honors Pre-calculus and Non-AP Calculus.  I have taught pre-calculus before, but Calculus will be a new challenge for me as a course even though I have tutored it for many years.   What is most energizing to me is that neither course has a standardized test tied to it, and this will be the first time in my career that I have had this opportunity.  I can teach at the pace that is comfortable for learning in my classroom, and we can delve deeper into topics and incite meaningful learning in our classroom.  I am the only one teaching both courses in my school, which is also a bonus – this year it is all about my kids and I and what works best for our classroom.  I intend to embrace this teaching gift with every fiber of passion in my teaching soul!!!

In addition to an awesome teaching schedule, I am returning to a department of colleagues I came to miss a lot last spring as well as many new ones that seem to be very motivated and hard-working.  Our school has a new learning incentive for Algebra 1 and Geometry courses to improve our EOC test scores.  We received extra positions to meet the needs of this program, and now each Algebra 1 and Geometry teacher will have between 15-20 students only to allow for learning needs of all students to be properly met, and students are able to learn as they go/move on when ready after each concept rather than fit into a “one-size fits all” pacing for the year.  It is an incredible opportunity for 9^th and 10^th grade students and teachers!  So far, I have been asked to lead in the professional development and resourcing involved prior to pre-planning and in contribution to the first week of instruction.  Being a member of MTBOS definitely helped me to provide rich and powerful teaching resources to them.

As school starts tomorrow, here are my goals for this school year:

Professional

• To continue using interactive notebooks in my classroom.  I have used them for the past 2.5 years, and they have provided students with success at all levels.  Honors Pre-calculus students can use them for reference next year in calculus, and Calculus students can revisit the art of organization with note-taking resources as they make their way to college.  Maybe they will take college calculus and use it!

• I have created not only a play table in my classroom, but a whole play and puzzle area in the back corner of my room; that part of the goal is finished.  I now would like to instill in my students the desire to “play with math” by using pattern and number sense exploration through tactile play and number puzzles.  I want them to see math as fun and magical.

• I started spiraling homework in the beginning of last year, but it dropped off quickly as I went into survival mode to stay well enough to finish the first semester.  This year I am going to do this again as well as lagging homework.  I was not able to go to Henri Picciotto’s session on lagging homework at TMC17, but I have read the archives of TMC17, and love the benefits to it that he outlined.  I definitely can see how lagging content in the the assignments a student does at home is much more meaningful and productive.  I do not believe in “no homework”, but I do know that my homework assignment habits needed a huge overhaul; just looks like just the right fit.

• To help our new math teachers in the building as much as possible by providing good professional resources and advice from my experiences both successful or not.  I have been assigned one of them specifically to mentor, and she is a new teacher this year.  She has great energy that I want to foster and enhance with the professional resources and networks I am a part of.  Outside professional organizations have kept me in this profession through the good times and bad.  Even when I went astray from them, they were there for me when I was ready to re-fuel.

•  To become much more active in MTBOS this year with sharing materials, resources, and fun chats with my fellow mathies across the country.  I want to keep up with regular blogging and #teach180.   I am hoping to join some of my North Carolina peeps for their professional development activities too.  I am hoping we have another Southern MTBOS tweet-up again this October as last year was a lot of fun, and I have a great idea/location OSin mind with another possible mathematical journey beyond that oneJ

• To get as many colleagues of mine as possible on Twitter and in the MTBOS!

Personal

•  Balance…  Balance, balance, balance.  If my former principal could hear this now – he instilled the importance of this into me, but I only truly realized it after I left.  The past 5 or so years, I loaded my working life with a full-time teaching job and almost full-time tutoring business.  No more of that for me – it killed my passions for teaching in the classroom, it wore my body out, and it robbed me of the joys one needs in their personal life to create that needed life-work balance.  I will still tutor a few students each week, but nowhere near what I have done in the past.  Though it helped us re-position financially, that is not needed now, and the personal cost is not worth it.

• I still managed to read during all the crazy of the past 5 years, but now I have the time to read even more.  On goodreads, I have set my goal at 50 books in 2017, and I would like to meet that goal or get as close to it as possible.  It has been a busy summer, so I did not get as many read as I had hoped, but I am happy that I am maintaining a mixture of personal books and professional books. 

• Exercise – it is my nemesis.  I would rather do anything else, but I bought a new bicycle last spring and have barely been on it.  I traveled a lot this summer, but now with the routine of the school year upon me, I would like to work into biking in 3-4 days a week.  

6 professional goals is a lot, but most of them are already in progress and need to just be built upon.  All of them are things I am super passionate about, so it is always easier to work towards those goals.  I predict my biggest challenges of those I have listed will be keeping up with the lagging/spiraling homework, and regular exercise, but I am committed to it.   This is the first blog I have posted in a while, and I have also yet to post my TMC17 reflections, but that is next this week!

As with any “first day of the school year eve”, I find myself a little nervous about tomorrow, but I am super excited and happier both professionally and personally than I have been in years. 

Here’s to a new and awesome 2017-2018!!!