Teaching Blog...Day 1

For the next thirty days I will be blogging...about school. Now, it may (or may not) be about my actual school or my actual students, but I will be talking about my experiences. Sometimes I will talk bout the past or the future, but I will talk...mostly because I know that there is nothing less expected than the truth.

Tonight I am going to write about my goals for this year...

This year I am teaching all freshman. They are a unique breed of human...sort of grown up and yet still children. This year, in my class, I want to create a stronger sense of community, a sense of belonging. I will be implementing elements of Tribes as well as concepts from Teaching with Poverty in Mind, which I read over the summer. I am committed to helping bridge the gap, finding connections and building them for students, making academic and emotional strides, helping them build their path.

My second goal is to build an academic pathway...work on academics that will help my students find academic success. May of them will come in questioning their abilities, only to have them have any hope crushed under their own lack of preparation or study skills. I want to change that...provide skills, provide preparation, provide hope.

Another goal is to write some amazing curriculum that promotes deeper thinking about math, encouraging my students to think beyond the answer and move deeper into the "Why."

One a personal level, I want to get my life in order...take my health back and stop the nagging in my head. Handle my anxiety and work through my stress, my guilt, and my pain around the littlest, around other factors that make the struggle real. I am ready to feel as strong on the inside as I portray on the outside.

Here is day 1...ready for the next twenty-nine and beyond! <3