Welcome to the New Year! I love the New Year. It is such a clean slate, with an endless wealth of possibilities opened up.
As I reflect on the old year, I could have never predicted some of the things that happened, such as my son getting married, him buying a house, and finding out I would be a grandma. Professionally, I never expected to start the school year with a new principal, or that we would be forced to start (and continue) the school year without our funding for new textbooks because our state STILL has not settled on a budget that was due in July! At this rate, we will be getting the 2015 budget at the start of fiscal year 2016!
Through it all, I walk by faith that life will work out. Age has taught me that what seems like a huge deal is really not as big as you think in the grand scheme of life. Somehow, it all washed out even in the end. I think I'm a much calmer person now than I was 20 years ago. After all, been there, done that, came out the other side mostly unscathed, when repeated enough times, becomes a way of life.
Today I want to share with you my favorite poem to start the new year. It applies in all areas of my life, professionally and privately. Those of us who have been teaching for any number of years know that education is a constantly changing game. What seems huge this year is last year's buzzword. Whole language learning, anyone? How about differentiation? Admittedly, that one is still tossed about, but not as much as it was three years ago. Remember paradigm shift? I sat through many a staff development related to paradigm shift several years ago. But in the end, good teaching is good teaching, and good teachers naturally do whatever is necessary to teach their students. We differentiate. We look at problems from all angles. We figure out how to assess our children so they can best move forward in their learning. I've done it for 28 years now. So have faith in yourself and keep doing what you're doing, because it is more than enough!
As you plan for your back to school day in January, I have two freebies (and lots of paid resources) in my store that you may like to use. You can find them by clicking on the pictures below.
