For those of you not in the know, B2S is my code word for Back to School. When I was a little girl my dad (an elementary principal) would outlaw the phrase “back to school” during the summer–not because he disliked his job, just because he appreciated his holidays. Now that I’m a teacher and so is my husband, I completely understand the sentiment. I believe it was my friend Andrew (also a teacher) who cursed me for mentioning my back to school anxiety dreams in July, but he used the term “b2s” and now that’s what I call it.
So on the eve of b2s with far too much work to do to write a lengthy post, I thought I should take some time to think about my hopes and plans for this year–keeping in mind my priorities that I made back in June.
1. I hope that I continue to implement and model what I view to be effective assessment and evaluation strategies.
2. I hope to be patient and open-minded. I have a tendency to get so passionate about my beliefs that I don’t really listen.
3. I hope to listen more and talk less.
4. I really really hope that the gamble admin took by timetabling me in a computer lab pays off in that I get my students to do some really exciting stuff.
5. I hope that if my kids do exciting stuff, that other teachers recognize it and don’t think it’s weird that an English teacher is in a computer lab.
6. I hope they will let me keep some books in the computer lab.
7. I hope that my kids like me (I don’t care what people say. It matters. They don’t have to like me for me to do a good job teaching them, but it sure makes the job nicer).
8. I hope that I do right by my students.
9. I hope that I don’t lose sight of what’s important and feel dragged down by the Debbie Downers of the teaching world.
10. I hope that I make a difference.
11. I hope I’m not too cheesy.
Good luck to all you teachers, administrators, and students who have either just started or are about to start a new school year. Remember, as Sir Ken Robinson says: “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”