#TeacherGoals

I love the feeling of a new year. I equate the way a new year makes me feel to the way I feel when I buy a new journal or a new pair of shoes. Excited. Hopeful. Motivated. There is nothing like that feeling of newness, fresh starts, and clean slates. As someone who can be overly reflective at times (i.e., agonizing over what I could've done differently in most situations), I definitely spend a good amount of time at the beginning of a new year considering areas of my life that I'd like to grow in personally, professionally, and everything in between. Today I'd like to share about my new year teacher goals and intentions, in the hopes that getting them out of my head will help to hold me accountable. Here are a few things I'd really like to focus in on!

1. Giving more timely feedback. This is probably the most concrete goal on my list. This goal simply stems from my habit of letting student work stack up on my desk for a long time. Usually, by the time my students get some of their graded work back from me, they've forgotten what we were even working on in the first place. A lot of student learning comes from the feedback and reinforcement that they get from teachers. In the interest of helping my students grow in the skills that we're working on, I want to get better about giving them quality feedback quicker.

-How I can grow in this area: I'd like to start by allocating a few minutes of my planning time each week to grading and providing the written feedback that my students need. I feel like this is a very simple shift for me, from using my planning period to do a miscellaneous host of things, to being more intentional with the time that I have. In the long run, I think getting helpful commentary on a more consistent basis will undoubtedly benefit my students, but I think this will also help me bring less student work home and avoid the dreaded mountain of work to grade at the end of the quarter.

2. Reminding my students that they are welcome, worthy, and valued. It's so easy to get caught up in the chaos of planning, grading, paperwork, meetings, and everything involved with growing the minds of our students. Our jobs are busy and different every day, making flexibility paramount. But we have to remember our why. We do all that we do out of a genuine desire to help kids learn, evolve, and flourish. Our students are the very heart of our work. I have 114 students who walk into my classroom every day, but strip that "student" label away and you have 114 children. 114 human beings. 114 souls, trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in this world. As they figure those things out, they need extra love, support, and understanding. That's where we come in.

-How I can grow in this area: Making more time for authentic conversations. Telling kids that they're seen, important, and cared for. Encouraging kids to pursue the things that they're interested in. Supporting kids at extracurricular events. Reminding myself that the relationships we create with students require consistent nurturing, but taking the time to do these things is so worth it.

3. Continue reading, learning, and trying new things. I'm not much for cutting myself slack. If I feel like I've messed up in my classroom, I'm not quick to let myself forget about it. When I sit back and think about it, however, I can acknowledge that I'm still very much in the process of establishing who I am as a teacher. This is year #2 for me. I need to embrace this time for what it is and allow myself to fully experience it.

-How I can grow in this area: My to-be-read pile of education books is a mile high with books that I'm confident will provide me with different insights, strategies, and  to weave into my own teaching practice. I'd definitely like to designate some down time for diving into those. Beyond the learning that books provide, I'd like to be more open to letting myself fail. I'd say that I'm pretty open to trying new things in my classroom, be it dressing up in character for a novel study or incorporating new technology. I don't plan these things, however, with the possibility of failure in mind. While we obviously want things to work seamlessly day in and day out, that's simply not realistic. I think I need to be more mindful of the possibility of things not always working out, and what I can learn from those moments when they come up. It's these learning experiences, both the successes and the failures, that are ultimately molding me into the teacher that I'm meant to be.

4. Keep growing my PLN. I haven't been active in the online educator community for very long, but in the time that I have been here, I've been so inspired by other teachers! I've learned all kinds of EdTech tips, participated in Twitter chats, and connected with people in the education world that I may not have otherwise connected with. I want to keep sharing and fostering genuine connections with those who are committed to creating engaging, inclusive, and supportive learning spaces. I'm excited to see all that I can learn from the amazing digital education community in the next year!

-How I can grow in this area: Keep sharing. Keep tweeting. Keep blogging. Keep supporting fellow educators in the pursuit of providing students with the quality education that they deserve!

I'd love to hear about your professional goals for the new year. Leave me a comment here or tweet me @MissCEaton on Twitter. Let's root for each other!

Wishing you the best,
Courtney