Making Resolutions, Not Wishes

The end of any­thing is always a good time for reflec­tion, and the end of a year is the most obvi­ous time for these con­sid­er­a­tions. Every year I set goals in my per­sonal life, some I am able to meet, many I am not (mainly those asso­ci­ated with my expand­ing waist line). Curi­ously enough this is not a tra­di­tion that I have kept in my pro­fes­sional life. Per­haps this is because the school year does not change with the cal­en­dar year, maybe it is because we are asked to reflect for­mally in our annual per­for­mance review. But this year, in con­junc­tion with my teach­ing twe­nais­sance its time to shape up.

While I was writ­ing this post Patrick Larkin (@bhsprincipal) posted a tweet that I found par­tic­u­larly apropos:

Res­o­lu­tion 1: I will renounce my passive-agressive behav­ior towards my admin­is­tra­tive duties. I hate paper­work. I think that paper­work actu­ally pre­vents men from doing the work that I love. But paper­work is another part of being a pro­fes­sional and my behav­ior is affect­ing the work of other peo­ple who prob­a­bly hate paper­work too.

Plan of action: I will read every piece of paper that is deliv­ered to my school mail­box and employ GTD prin­ci­ples right there on the spot, using tools to help me meet the dead­lines I need to meet.

Res­o­lu­tion 2: To be more prompt with stu­dent eval­u­a­tions. The excuse that Eng­lish teach­ers are slow with every­thing is no longer a valid excuse. I need to find a feed­back bal­ance that will allow me to pro­vide stu­dents with enough feed­back to improve, but also allow me to get the work back to stu­dents in a timely manner.

Plan of action: I will no longer plan in school dur­ing my plan­ning period. Instead I will use any time in school for grad­ing and move my plan­ning time to time at home. I will set goals in terms of quan­tity, and if I don’t meet them in school I will need to meet them at home (sorry family).

Res­o­lu­tion 3: To reflect more by blogging.

Plan of action: I will write at least one blog post per week. I will plan and draft all week and pub­lish every Sunday.

It feels good to have a plan, much bet­ter than a res­o­lu­tion. I am count­ing on my PLN to keep me account­able, and I will keep you up to date on my progress.