I like goals. I like lists. I especially like crossing things OFF of a list of goals. Thus far in 2013, I have marked off several that were important to me…both professionally and personally. With the upcoming start of the school year (I go back next Tuesday.) I wanted to get a second set of goals written where I can have some PLN accountability. Again, this will be a mesh of professional and personal, but it’s interesting how intertangled they all are.

• Figure out how to use Evernote. I downloaded this in an attempt to get started. Just need to actually READ it now. I’m hoping I can take pictures of articles & recipes that I read that I want to save and be able to file them in a manner that makes them both accessible and easier to keep track of. Also think there is potential for PDAS application with teachers…
• Maintain a schedule. This includes an earlier wake up time in order to have some quiet time, perhaps even a jog. This includes taking my lunch, daily. (gulp.) This includes carving out time to blog, read blogs, connect with my PLN peeps and my real friends. I am a social girl and keeping ties to those who are important to me is crucial. Whether they be in a different school, district, state ,or even country, I need them.
• Ensure EdCampDallas success! Spreading the word to help extend the echo chamber of the twitterverse. Whether it be a new staff, a new grade level, or a new teacher…I want to share and help promote the unconference mindset and help empower teachers. In Adam Bellow’s amazing keynote at #ISTE13, he made a point of mentioning how it was selfish to create amazing things and NOT share them.
• Stop going to bed before 9:30 pm. Work your way up until 10pm, like a big girl. 🙂
• Exercise. Sheesh. Eat out less. (which may then,  require less exercise!)
• Read and reflect on leadership novels, monthly. Bimonthly? At least monthly. Just do it.
• Figure out how to convince your husband you need cable again. Preferably before football season. Sigh.
• Research how to watch football without cable.
• Stay organized, buy a super cute and amazingly expensive planner and maintain it. (perhaps reflect on why the techno girl needs a paper cally?)
• Take lots and lots of pictures of my girls. They’re getting SO big….we will never have such young babies again.

Like I said, I like a good checklist. And now I have 7 days to wrap my mind around making all of these happen. Who’s with me?

Checkingly,,

Amber

This is cross posted from Connected Principals.

It’s always interesting to me how worlds can collide.

We had a guest speaker at church tonight, Dr. Tim Kimmel. His sermon was on grace based parenting, particularly, how to get through the sensitive tween years.  While I don’t quite have a tween, (gulp.) I was still struck by a story that I think relates to what we do as educators. 

While in the 9th grade, Kimmel arrived at gym class one day to see a trampoline in the middle of their gym floor. This being a novelty, before the time when trampolines were a commonplace backyard item, he was pretty excited. Being in a large class, he waited near the front, hoping to get a chance to jump, his eyes locked in on his PE teacher. He couldn’t believe it when his coach asked HIM to take off his shoes and join him on the trampoline. Kimmel ripped off his shoes and climbed up. His classmates, however, were distracted by the fact that Tim had holes in not one, but both, of his socks. In typical 9th grade fashion, the teasing began.

“Do we need to take up a collection? Poor Tim can’t afford new socks…” “Cold up there, Tim?”

He couldn’t even concentrate on what he was getting to do, or what his coach was saying, because his ears were ringing with the sounds of his classmates. He was from a middle class family, they paid their bills on time. He had never given his socks much thought…until now. When the class finally ended, Tim jumped down and escaped quickly. He looked for his gym teacher, but he too, had disappeared. Thinking that he would run home and darn everysinglepair of socks that he had, Tim snuck out a side door and headed downstairs.

“Hey, Tim….wait up”…there was his coach heading his way. Taking off his shoe, showing Tim the big hole in HIS sock, the coach said, “We agile guys, we’re pretty hard on socks aren’t we?” He patted Tim on the back, put his shoe back on, and walked away.  Kimmel, having no clue what agile meant, went to his next class, English, because there were dictionaries there. He learned that agile meant:

Our window of opportunity to touch our students’ lives closes faster than we realize. Never let an opportunity to change a child’s life pass you by. I hope that we wind summer down we all start looking for those windows and can be that change for some student…socks be darned.

sock sacrificingly,

Amber