Making Goals

The second day of school, my students sat down and spent 15-20 minutes writing out their goals for the school year in all subject areas (including other).  Setting goals are super important to me.  I know how important they are in helping me get better at things.  I figured that my students could benefit from this at the very start of the year.  Their goals are posted right above their cubbies for them to see each day when they walk in.  They are a constant reminder to them of what they want to work on this year.
 
 I have been really busy thinking about and working on my teaching goals for this year.  It has been a lot harder than I thought.  I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the teacher standards and thinking about what is it that I want to improve on.  What do I want to get really good at this year.  The hard reality for me to accept this year has been that I will not get really good at everything this year.  In fact, I may never be really good at everything in teaching. 

I started the school year out pretty sure that I wanted to focus my goals around teaching reading and writing.  But what I have realized is that I wanted to focus on teaching reading and writing because I like those areas.  I feel comfortable teaching those areas.  It is Math and Science that my comfort level is much less.  At first, I was pretty sure that I did not want to mention my comfort level with this to my mentor (and I know you are reading this), but after really thinking about it, how will I become a better teacher if I don't hone in on and work on the more challenging parts of my job?  That is the only way to get better.  Not only that, but what kind of a model would I be for my students.  I asked my kids to do this when they wrote their goals on the second day.  Our classroom logo is "Mrs. Rowe's 5th Grade Growing Learners."  I should be a growing learner this year too.