The Cornerstone Blog has a great post about New Year’s Resolutions for teachers. We all catch ourselves doing it. You know, saying, “Next year I won’t let *blank* happen!”. But why wait until next year? From The Cornerstone Blog:
“So in light of this, I present the “Not Waiting for a New Year” resolution. What do you want to change NOW in your teaching practice? What thing is so important that you can’t afford to write off this year’s kids and wait for a fresh start in the fall? What’s really pressing for you?”
So head on over and post your New Year’s Resolutions!
My resolution? To give my students more time for independent reading and writing. I have somehow managed to lose focus as the year has moved forward and that independent time has fallen by the wayside. So I will be reworking a few routines and procedures so that I can make that time every day.
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The Reading Zone 
With me, it’s “next term” when I reflect on specific projects or units that I won’t be returning to with the current group of students.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that if I think of a way to make a slight improvement to a routine practice, I tend to weigh the effectiveness of the change against the work involved in re-teaching / re-learning it. Especially if it’s near the end of the term – the last few days/weeks tend to be hectic enough without adding in new distractions!
Thanks for the link! I’m hoping that the ‘Not Waiting for a New Year’ Resolution will inspire all of us to reflect on our teaching practice and make improvements for the new year.
I, too, find that I don’t give my kids enough time to just READ and WRITE just for the love of literacy. I used to teach in a school that allowed Reader’s Workshop (I did it Regie Routman style) and miss it deeply. Now it seems like everything I give the kids to read is less than 2 pages and is followed by 8 multiple choice questions. 😦
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[…] also responded with a barrage of improvements they want to make during the second semester. Sarah from The Reading Zone excerpted my request for resolutions on her site and collected a few herself. (If you haven’t […]