My guiding principals in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful and caring. ~Prince William
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The New Year always brings the thought of New Year’s resolutions. Year after year, I find myself resolving to improve many of the same areas in my life. What I realized after considering this for a moment is that resolutions are really about commitment. I’ve read numerous action research books and many of them claim that, “what gets measured gets done.” I find this to be true in my own life. The more precise the goal and the more often I measure it, the better I am at sticking to it and accomplishing my goal. It was easier to stay committed when my goals were tangible and more achievable – or more likely in my world — they were easier to get back on track when I missed one. For example, my goal to exercise more has now become my goal to walk 100 miles each month and not to miss more than one day per week walking. In our world of data teams, we call these SMART goals – S: specific, M: measurable, A: achievable, R: relevant, T: timely. Oh sure, I’ve missed monthly mile markers, and I’ve gone more than one day missing, but not often. My resolution this year is to get back on track quickly and not allow missing a measurement to keep me from my commitment.
When I think about what resolutions and commitments we have made at Benton, I realized there are a plethora of parallels to reaching our goals as a school. We make almost the same goals each year. I realize now, that where we get smarter each year is when we continue to make the goals more achievable and timely. I think our New Year’s resolution this year needs to be to make sure if we get behind or miss a weekly goal, we put that behind us and get back on track. It’s tough to stay the course and finish strong. That really does take commitment. So think about this in your classroom. Where can you set more timely and achievable goals in order to finish strong? Make that commitment to yourself and for your students – and ultimately, for our school. And if you resolve to stay committed to the end – that really shows your CARdinal Excellence!
Week 19: A Look Ahead
Administration has our EOC courses observations finally on a schedule, so we are going to start up with our building walkabouts again. This week, we will walkthrough looking for vocabulary implementation in your lessons.
Monday – WHITE DAY FINALS (regular bell schedule); pass out Semester 2 schedules in CAMP
Tuesday – (WHITE DAY) Start of Semester 2 classes
Wednesday – Benton Leadership Team Meeting @ 7:00 a.m. room 106; Hillyard visits with sophomores in auditorium during CAMP (students report after roll is taken); JEPD that was added for today is moved to Friday.
Friday – JEPD for 30 minutes each period (schedule will be sent out as a Thursday reminder)
~Excellence is a journey not a destination.~
All images are available CC on Flickr: “resolution” by New Oxford American Dictionary; “Diet – new year’s resolutions” by neeravbhatt