Back - To - School

Our district started back this week.  Yesterday was an institute day.  I work in quite a huge district:  1 pre-school center, 13 elementary schools,  middle schools, and 2 high schools.  However, every year at the beginning of the year, they pull us altogether.  I have to say it is a nice way to start the year. You get to see those people that you were on a committee with a couple of years ago, or say hi to people you have worked with before.

We had a phenomenal speaker by the name of Mark Scharenbroich.  He talked about building relationships with each other and our students.  He made us laugh, and I even shed tears when he told some stories.  It was the perfect way to get motivated for a new year!

Since today was the first day with students, I thought it was only appropriate to link up with Jess over at I {heart} Recess for her Back to School Goals Linky Party.

Personal:  I would like to continue improving my 5K time in at least 2 more races this school year.  There is one in September and one in October near here that I may try for.  I have not been running at all and need to get back into a routine!

Organization:  If I were not so embarrassed by the way I have let my oldest daughter's room get, I would take a before picture and after picture (I still may, I know that there are worse out there)!  We need to work together to get about 3 years of clutter out of her room.

Planning:  I use mostly the Leveled Literacy Intervention materials from Fountas and Pinnell, which has a great word portion to the lessons.  However, I would like to incorporate more Words Their Way with my students as well.  I just think that they need that extra repetition.  I also love the assessments.  It's a great way to show growth with spelling and writing!

Professional:  I really need to read many of these professional books that I bought this summer.  If the book was about reading or writing, you can bet I bought it!  I even bought one on formative assessments!  If I keep up my schedule of reading and blogging about my books every Monday, then I just may well meet that goal!

Students:  The students that I see struggle in reading.  My goal is to give them a second dose of (hopefully) really good reading instruction and start to close the gap between them and their peers.  I need to keep them working hard every day and keep expectations high.  I think that when you show them that you are invested in their learning and care for them, it makes a huge difference!

Motto:  I know I am not the only one out there who is juggling about 50 things at a time.  If you are a teacher, wife, mother, daughter, coach, troop leader, and everything else in between (like me), you are probably very good at multi-tasking.  I want to make sure I am not missing out on all the little things with my daughters (and students) because my mind is thinking about the other 50 things I also need to address.

That felt really good setting those goals.  It kind of felt like a therapy session (only much cheaper)!  Has anyone every told y'all that you are great listeners?

Go link up and let's hear about your back to school goals!