it's that time of year . . .

Back to school! I wasn't really ready to go back- at all- when I got an email from my administration asking that I come in to help with something. I went in to help and as I was sitting across from my AP a little bubble of excitement rose in my gut. Yes, I am excited for school to start! While I'm not quite ready for the lazy (who am I kidding, this summer hasn't been lazy at all) days of summer to be over I love the feeling of starting again.

Children and those that work in the field of education are lucky. Instead of just one "New Year's Eve" we get two. The start of the school year is full of new ideas, expectations, and anticipation (and new clothes- lol). As usual, I've started creating documents, writing letters to students and parents, visualizing my classroom, and thinking about new ideas. It's all a mess in my head right now but as I start organizing, getting new supplies, and printing documents it becomes more ordered.

disorder

order

Like new year's resolutions the new school year resolutions sometimes lose steam and fizzle over time. Usually this is because we take on too much and try to create too many changes and implement too may new ideas at one time and then can't keep up with it all.

In an effort of making sure that I stick with my new school year resolutions I've embedded the changes *in* my lesson plan format and I've started planning. I'm going to implement just one seed idea. When it has become familiar I will add another. I hope that the small changes will slowly transform me into a better teacher and role model instead of starting off all-or-nothing and letting it slip when I can't keep up. I tend to be all-or-nothing and my goal this year is to learn to adapt and change over time.

How about you? Are you all-or-nothing or do you slowly adapt? Any helpful hints for an all-or-nothing kind of person?