At the end of the calendar year we make (and quickly break) new year’s resolutions. But as teachers, I thought it might be fun to make — at the end of the summer and the end of the academic calendar — some resolutions. Okay, geez guys, maybe “fun” isn’t the right word. But inspirational maybe? Okay, okay, maybe just a lark.

In order for them to be effective, I’m throwing down three simple rules.

• You should come up with at least 1 but at most 3 resolutions. This is so you don’t get overwhelmed.
• They have to be easily doable and sustainable throughout the year. This is so you don’t get overwhelmed.
• You need to publicly announce them – whether it be on your blog, on twitter, on the comments here. This is so you have some external accountability.

I will make mine here:

1. I read on someone’s blog (forgive me for not searching to find and link to it) an idea to keep students engaged. If students point out mistakes that I make, I will visibly tally them somewhere in the room. The student who caught the mistake will hopefully feel good about themselves and students will hopefully always be second guessing me. And after 30 mistakes are pointed out, the students get to have a “candy day” or something where I bring a little treat for them. I will do this in my Algebra 2 and Calculus classes.

2. I will do this random acts of kindness thank you card activity again in my Algebra 2 and Calculus classes.

3. I will decorate the classroom that I will be teaching 3 of my 4 classes in so it will be colorful and kitchy, but not elementary school-esque. I will have this done by… no, not the first day of school… by the end of the first quarter.

Signed,

UPDATE: I am going to have to nix goal 3. Even though one day I would like to do this, apparently this year my rooms have been switched beyond recognition, so instead of teaching in 2 rooms, I’m teaching all 4 classes in 4 different rooms. I will be running around the school like a chicken with my head cut off. And although I’d like to decorate all 4 rooms, I honestly don’t have the energy to create and maintain something in 4 different rooms, and I won’t have “priority” in these rooms because other teachers will probably be teaching in them more and want to do something.