It's a new dawn people (Grace Slick at Woodstock)

Photo by 30daysreplay (PR & Marketing) on Unsplash

It's a new year! New starts!

Yes, that also means it's goal setting time for Mandy, me, and the rest of the blogoshere!

It can't be avoided - discussion on Facebook on whether to have new year resolutions or not doesn't help and pretty soon we'll be back at school leading students in the art of setting goals for their year.

But before we start on that proud tradition - some cautionary words from Dan Rockwell to reflect upon:

Some limitations of goals-only thinking:  

Goals restrict happiness. Goal-fever puts off happiness until goals are reached (adapted from, “Atomic Habits,” by James Clear)

Goal-driven leaders minimize difficulties and exaggerate opportunities. False optimism results in best-scenario-thinking.

Setting a goal is easy. Choosing the next best step is the challenge.

Goals are outside your control. But behaviors are within your control.

Yes, we should exercise some caution: students can become hugely invested in a big audacious goal - say, a pass rate figure for a year group. The potential pluses are obvious - collegiality and group strength/expectation can raise students up to higher levels of performance/achievement. The potential negatives are less obvious - what about the students who don't buy into the goal or who can't/won't reach the needed levels to meet the goal?

Worth thinking about as we approach goal setting season. 

My goals beyond (John McLaughlin)

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Holidays always help turn my attention towards what I want to achieve in the new year (which is next week). There's plenty of down time around family get togethers to reflect and ponder.

Resolutions are not my bag, maan, but setting some short term objectives mos def is (my bag). As you all know: Your focus determines your reality (Qui Gon-Jinn).

Clarity is easier for my professional goals. Here they are:

Get into more classrooms - provide better feedback for teachers - improve my appraisal for others and myself.

Personal goals are trickier. Basically, I have no idea...yet.

Dan Rockwell's post is helpful here as he asks good questions.

#1. What do you need to stop doing in 2018? (If you can’t completely stop it, how might you do less of what drains the life out of you?)

#2. What might you do that gives you energy in 2018?

• What did you do in 2017 that lit you up?
• What projects jazzed you up?
• What personal values were in play when your energy went up?

Values of personal enjoyment/ learning and communicating via reading (50 books in 52 weeks) and writing (my blogs) are my answers.

This year, maintaining the reading discipline proved relatively easy compared to being more proactive with the blogs.

To help with that and reduce the vast number of bookmarks (in my education, music and personal folders) I'm going to concentrate more on writing in 2018.

So, maybe less reading (a book a week became fairly all consuming) and more writing will create the much needed balance to the force.

To have a post go viral  is my personal stretch goal, my wildly audacious goal, my goal beyond for 2018. 

I usually played such things as rough-neck and thug (Captain Beefheart)

Roughing it in Eskdale with the Year 11's Part 1

Two words: school camp. 

Some love 'em (like me), some folks don't. It's all good.

Roughing it in Eskdale Part 2

This first week for the term, at our school, is all about a gentle start - just seniors and a load of non classroom activities - camps (Year 11 and 13), trips to universities, and visiting speakers is the order of the day.

The start of a school year is always different in each school. Some schools stagger the start with different year groups, some get everybody in. Some launch into classes straight away, some don't.

Each one is valid.

The point is we've started the year and the next 10 weeks at school will be vibrant, exciting, frustrating, rewarding, challenging and full to the brim of potential!!

So - let's get into it via:

1 Tube map education
Say what? What does the London Underground have to do with education? I like this analogy.

2 Engagement
I'm keen to immediately engage my students. I'm always thinking of ways to do this and always looking for the disengaged. Get 'em on board early and life is a lot easier for the next 10 weeks.

3 Try something new
It's a new year - fresh starts for students and time to retire some old texts and embrace some fresh ideas. Everyone needs a reminder about this!

4 Blended learning
Time also for a reminder about establishing a good classroom culture for blended learning.

5 Wildly audacious goals
This is the best time of the year coz we can all have wildly audacious goals!