School Year Goals

Yesterday I gave this assignment to my 7th & 8th grade students.

Create three goals for yourself this year.
First: Individual musical goal
Second: Group goal for the class
Third: Character goal for you personally

Today we shared all of our group goals and discussed them. As a class we narrowed it down to three that the class really needs to focus on this year. Students wrote our individual and class goals in our music folders so they can be reminded of them everyday. We'll hang the group goals in the classroom and evaluate our progress on a regular basis.

For the last several days I've set some goals for myself. I have no clue why I'm deciding to blog about these. That isn't usually something I do but I felt the need to do it. So here are a few of them.

1. Implement the new approach to teaching and document successes and areas for improvement once a week. It is all new and not well defined yet. I'm learning as I go. Documenting will be the big challenge for me, especially when it come to actually articulating the philosophy behind the methods. Writing is not my strong point!
   
2. Make relationships a priority. School gets busy and it is so easy to focus on work and not people. For me the people that tend to get the short end of the stick are those friends who are closest to me. Then tend to only get calls when I'm having a bad day. But this summer I've watch God place some amazing people in my life and strengthen some friendships I've been blessed with for many years. I care about those people and our friendships enough to stop being stupid and start making them a priority. That means taking the time to make more phone calls, send more e-mails, and grab more cups of coffee or meals.
   
3. Leave work at work. Being at one school will help this process a lot. I only have 200 students this year, which will also help. Band classes have less written assignments. This means more of my paper work I should be able to do right after school or come in early and finish. Sure on occasion I might need to bring something home but I want that to be the exception.