Goals for 2014 - So Far . . .

I'm a reflective person by nature, and I often set goals.  Unfortunately, I'm not as good at achieving goals as I am at setting them, but still . . . it's a useful process for me.  Kind of like checking out library books.  They represent goals - at least the way that I think about them.  I have about 60 books checked out right now, many more than I could ever possibly read in the time allowed.  I might read 10 or 20, and I might use five or six in some way.  The rest I may never even open.  That doesn't mean I should check out fewer books necessarily, though my wife would probably say that it does.  That just means that I like to have options, and it doesn't have to cost me extra (in terms of money, though it costs in time and energy to tote all of them home and return them on time).

So, to the business at hand.  Goals for 2014.  I set similar goals every year - health, reading, home improvement projects, learn a language, study a specific topic, etc.  I'd like to focus on the new twists for this year, while still promising myself that I will work hard on other issues that need my attention. (My health, for example, is a serious thing, even though I might seem flippant about setting that goal.)

1. I need to blog more often.  Once a week is a reasonable goal.  More often if necessary.  I need to let go of some of the pressure.  It's nice to work hard on crafting a quality post, but it's not nice to write nothing because of the lack of time to commit to the project.  So, I need to lower my standards a little.  
2. Publish something creative, even if it's just as an e-book on Amazon.  That's been a life goal, and I have a bunch of stuff that is almost publishable.  I'm not sitting on the great American novel, but it would be better to publish something than to continue to postpone and revise. 
3. Network and connect with other teachers more.  I'm a strong participant in Twitter chats, and I've benefited enormously from the chance to learn from other teachers around the world.  It's an enormous blessing and a great opportunity to be as connected as I am.  I want more.  There is a growing opportunity to connect with teachers and educators on Google Plus, and I want to be part of that.  I should also be looking for "old-fashioned" opportunities - conferences, workshops, and especially EdCamps.  That was a wonderful thing.  I'd like to attend at least two, and maybe help organize another one.  
4. Open my classroom to the world more.  Share more.  Publish more of the work that we do - my instructional strategies and materials, and my students' work.  There are good things going on.  I don't need to take credit for everything.  Actually, it would be beneficial for me and my students if I found more ways to share the credit.  The newsletter that I have shared is a great first step, but even that could be more open.  So, share!
5. Seek out more leadership opportunities.  I'm in a position to help others with connecting, with technology, with literacy, and with writing instruction.  I would love to be useful to more people in more ways.  I think that I'm in a good place to start to reach out to leadership chances.  In my district and out.  
6. Work harder on my personal and professional growth.  I have amassed an impressive professional library, but I haven't read and applied it all.  Not even close.  That should be the focus, instead of making it larger.  I also want to learn more about programming, web design, and ways to use technology that go beyond traditional strategies (further down the SAMR model).  That's something that will pay enormous dividends in the future, but that is also a lot of fun.  So, why not?

I think that's a good list to start with.  

Happy New Year!

So, it's been an up and down year.  I'm really happy about a lot of it, and I wanted to stop for a minute, before I start to make lists and goals for 2014, about what I'm thankful for.

Happiness and gratitude.  I figure, why not stop and be grateful?

There's a TED talk about this connection, if you haven't thought about it:

I was watching this with my daughter - who is 5, but who is also very thankful.  She complained that she couldn't understand his accent.

There's a lot to be thankful for, just in that statement.  We're blessed to have access to so much learning.  The Internet is full of biased, misleading garbage.  And some things that are just amazing.  It's a wonderful place for so many things.  (Don't get me started on Kid President.  I love that kid.)  But having my own wonderful children.  And my wife.  And my health.  And the chance to spend time with them, right now.  It wasn't that long ago that I was working in retail.  That's the worst place to be during the holidays.  Not only are you working during the holidays, but you're working hard, for long hours.  It's terrible.

When I'm shopping at times like these, I work hard to be extra nice to the frazzled retail employees who help.  Secretly, though, I'm infinitely grateful that I'm not in that place anymore.

This is the year that I experienced EdCamp for the first time.  That was a wonderful experience, and something that I want to experience again.  I'm excited about a chance to participate online, though my expectations have been tempered somewhat.  I prefer the face-to-face, though it's nice to be comfortable in my own home.

I've had many opportunities to develop as a leader and collaborator online and through organizations like the Illinois Writing Project.  That has been a wonderful blessing.

I've learned a great deal in 2013, and I've grown more in that year than I have in almost any other year.  I credit that to my increased participation in Twitter and Google Plus.  And I also need to thank anyone who is reading this.  It's one thing to write a blog that no one reads.  It's another to write something that people are looking at.  That's an enormous thing for me, and it has translated into some important things for me.

So, I'm thankful for many things.  I'm also thankful that I'm not done growing and learning, and that I have so many chances to continue to learn and grow.

(Now it's time to start working on 2014.)

My Summer Reading Goals

I've been thinking about some kind of "process" post about what I'm doing as a summer reader - I'm a firm believer in writing about process, since I don't think I'll ever have a "finished" statement about things like teaching writing or conducting effective research (or teaching others to do so).  So, in that spirit, I thought I would write about my thinking about my summer reading goals, as they stand, right now.  Instead of waiting for them to be "finished."  Because even the goals are being revised, as we speak.  

So, here are some of my personal summer reading objectives:

1. Read around several key professional (education) topics, such as 
1. Engagement, when and why it occurs, how to improve/increase it in the classroom
2. Teaching writing
3. Teaching reading
4. Non-traditional or "outside-the-box" teaching methods that encourage engagement and learning
5. Best practice or most-effective methods of teaching 
2. Read 50 "kid" books (YA and MG)
3. Blog usefully about most of what I read
4. Tweet about all of the above
5. Synthesize/synergize all of the above as much as possible

I'm only three books toward Goal 2, but I've never read that many.  My highest achievement thus far has been 32, and that was with a little "cheating" (like reading a lot of Babymouse books).  I hope that my blogs have been useful so far, but not many posts lately have been about my summer reading.  I hope to work on that.  I am trying to average about one post a day, though, and that's a lot of fun.  

I think the only goal that needs further explanation, really, is Goal 5.  I hope that it's clear that many of  the topics under Goal 1 overlap (teaching reading in an engaging and effective way, for example).  Regardless of the actual overlap among the books, though, I remain one person, with one classroom.  I'm developing plans to use Genius Hour, for example, which fits 1-4, 1-1, and 1-5 without too much stretching.  It might take some careful design to apply this strategy to 1-2 and 1-3.  Can Genius Hour be used to effectively teach reading and writing?  I think so.  I hope to try, anyway.  

Perhaps I should also clarify "read around."  I don't think that I need to read an entire 500-page book about brain science to learn something from that book, or to use what I learn.  I know from experience that persisting through a difficult and time-consuming book doesn't automatically make that book more useful.  Don't get me wrong - I finish a lot of books - but I no longer feel obliged to finish every book I start, especially when the book is dull, not especially useful, redundant, or covers something I think I already know.  

So the first part of "read around" is not feeling required to finish every book I start reading.  The second part is to start/skim/peruse as many different books about the topic as I can.  Let me give you an example.  Related to the topic of engagement, I am currently reading Self-Driven Learning by Larry Ferlazzo, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahnemann, Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, and The Anti-Education Era by James Paul Gee.  I recently finished Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess and Visible Learning for Teachers by Doug Hattie, and I have copies of Teach Like a Champion, Book Love, Crafting Digital Writing, Notice and Note, The Book Whisperer, and Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning.  I am picking up a copy of Invent to Learn, as well.  

There's no way I'm going to read all of these.  I probably wouldn't want to.  I might finish two or three of these titles this summer.  Finishing 10 professional books in a summer would be an ambitious goal for me.  Pulling chunks from half or more of these books is reasonable.  In fact, I think that reading a little of one book, then a little of another with related ideas, can be more interesting and more useful.  Since I'm the boss of my own learning with this, and since I think this is the best strategy for what I need, based on what resources are available, that's the way I'm going to do it.  

I hope to share some of these weird idea webs soon.