Reflective Teaching - A 30 Day Challenge Day 1

I have been following TeachThought on Twitter for some time now and the other day they threw out a 30 Day Reflective Teaching Challenge - 30 prompts to help you blog every day throughout the month of September. I've decided to accept the challenge so expect a blog post every day for the month of September!

(Aside: This post almost didn't happen because we have been soooo busy these past few days. It seemed like bad form to put off the first day of the challenge though, so here it is. Definitely not perfect, but done. Which is something, right?).

Day 1 - Write Your Goals for the School Year

On the surface, this is a relatively easy task. I mean, we all have new things we want to try and goals we'd love to accomplish. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of a very nasty battle between the BC Teachers' Federation and the provincial government. Teachers have been either locked out or on strike since mid-June and there is no end in sight. Needless to say, I am having trouble focusing on the new school year as we have no idea when we will be going back to work. However, I have a few goals floating around in my head so here they are:

1) Be purposeful - in my planning, teaching and prepping.
2) Get (and stay!) organized - at school, at home and in the blogosphere.
3) Read more professional resources. Keep a list of new ones I want to check out (hello, GoodReads!).
4) Stay positive.
5) Prioritize - workouts, reading, family, work. Not necessarily in that order. Cut out the time wasters to make time for these things.
6) Continue to explore new and innovative ways of teaching - don't get stuck in a rut! A few I would like to explore more: socratic circles with primary grades, flipped learning, PBL, blogging with kids, support in-class for struggling students.
7) Provide staff development to ensure iPads are being used effectively (i.e. for more than just googling!).
8) Push myself outside of my comfort zone daily. Learn something new daily. Be open-minded. Be creative.
9) Use what I've learned to help others grow. Use what others have learned to help me grow. Co-learn.
10) Listen. Collaborate. Create a PLN.


I'm sure once we're back at it I'll have many more but for now, that's what I've got. Here's hoping we're back soon so that I can start working on some of these bad boys...for now, maybe I'll start with the first 5 from home. That, and do some serious weeding.