Live and Learn - Trying New Things... One Step at a Time

Over the summer, I took professional development courses to improve my teaching after a very stressful first year. I then began to make a huge list of all the new things I'd like to try my 2nd year. However, I forgot one very important thing.

Change is gradual.. it doesn't happen overnight. 

So as I raced through my pre-planning days trying to get all of my new ideas in place, I just simply couldn't do it. I found myself stressing so bad because I couldn't get everything I wanted to try in place before the kids returned for their first day of school. That's when I started prioritizing. I took my list of new things to try, and decided what was... first of all manageable in the time I had left in pre-planning, and second of all what would make the biggest positive impact on my teaching.

Here's my list after I completed triage, so to speak...

The first 4, I was able to implement this year. Next year, I plan on trying my reward system. I am stock piling goodies for rewards as we speak. Whenever I see something on sale that my kids might like as a reward, I buy it for my reward box.

I will be posting what I have learned from implementing each of these as I go.