New Beginnings

It is crazy to think that we are already a couple of weeks into the school year. The last couple of weeks have flown by and I am left at the end of another week wondering where the time went. I feel like I am constantly playing catch up. No matter how hard I try to get ahead, things come up and plans change. By the end of the day my carefully laid plans to accomplish a, b, and c may or may not have fallen into place. Although this is not my first year of teaching, it is my first year as a middle school math teacher. As a result, I feel like I am starting from scratch. I am excited about the opportunity to make this course my own but feel slightly overwhelmed at times when I stop and think about all of the things I need to do in order to ensure that each day, week, and chapter will pass by smoothly. That said, one of my goals this year is to effectively plan ahead for future lessons so that I am not staying late each night or coming in before the sun rises every morning.
Along the same line, my goal is to have a life outside of school. I have a hard time checking out once in awhile and I need to remember to take care of my own physical and mental health. If I do not take control of my health then I will not be able to be there for my students during the day like they need me to be.
A third goal I have for this year is to practice effective communication skills. First, I would like to establish open lines of communication with my students. I want them to know that they can always come to me if they have a problem, even if it has nothing to do with the lesson we are studying in math. In an effort to forge relationships with my students I have made a commitment to attend their games and other events whenever I can. This also aides in creating and maintaining positive relationships with parents. The third group of people that I hope to foster positive relationships with is my coworkers. I am not an island and I can not do my job without their help nor can they do their job without my contributions to the team.
The fourth (and final goal for now) relates once again to my students. I love math and I hope that my excitement for math rubs off on my students this year. My goal is to make the material leap off the page and show them that math really can be quite exciting if you give it a chance. Students will not only learn the required material this year but they will also learn how this information applies to their real lives. Math is all around us and we would be lost with out it.
I am so excited for what the future holds. We are going to have a great year!!