Wk 1 Choice: Starting a New School Year

As I begin the 2010 - 2011 school year, it will be my 8th year at Barr-Reeve Intermediate School.  I would like to take this chance to look back at what I've done in the past and create some goals for this year. I feel like I'm a totally different teacher now that I am almost finished with my Master's degree at Full Sail University! Not only am I going to use the skills obtained at Full Sail to improve my teaching, I also feel like I've learned alot about forming and maintaining relationships with others. Here is a list of some of my goals for this school year:

• Communicate more effectively with my co-workers. Reach out to those that I haven't had much contact with in the past. 
• Finally begin eating lunch with a group of fellow teachers that have asked me repeatedly for the past 2 years to join them (instead of staying in my room to catch up on grading or lesson plans). 
• Collaborate with the tech person in order to better equip our classrooms with technology. 
• Use more music in my classroom. 
• Assign less worksheets.
• Make my classmates a more inviting place by hanging more decorations, changing bulletin boards more often, and offering more technology. 
• Become a leader in teaching co-workers how to use Study Island. 
• Make more efforts to get information to parents via Facebook, Twitter, a Class Blog, etc.

These are just a few of the changes I want to make - and with school starting next Tuesday, I better get busy!