Goals for the 2014-15 School Year

At the beginning of 2014, I shared My Three Words for 2014. These three words, Discipline, Intentional, and Balance have been the driving force behind personal goals that I have set for myself this year. My goals have been ones that were for me personally (trying to run 500 miles in 2014) as well as for me professionally (leading the literacy team at school.) In this blog post, I will be sharing my goals for the new school year. 


Professional
Goal: Increase student voice. I love what principal Jason Markey has done at Leyden High School with allowing students to take over their school's twitter account. I want to follow their lead and allow students to take over the school's twitter account during the year. 

Goal: Lead literacy learning. Literacy has always been important to me, but Dick Allington lit a fire under me when I heard his presentation, We Can Teach All Kids to Read, in February of this year. It has led to the creation of a literacy team at Hoover High School. (I will share the team's plans in an upcoming post.)


Personal
Goal: Continue to run and walk as part of the #500in2014 challenge and add back in workouts with my battle rope & kettlebells. If I'm not healthy, I can't give my best to others. Just like they tell you on the airplane, put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then you can help others put theirs on.

Goal: Create more family time. This is my oldest daughter's senior year in high school, so my goal is to be intentional about planning family time together. It's easy for all of us to splinter and be distracted by our own interests, but I plan to create some family experiences for us in this last year before she goes off to college. 


Now, if you've read through what I've typed above and if you've been following my blog or me on twitter, you are probably thinking, "Only 2 professional and 2 personal goals?? No way, Jennifer. You've always got something cookin'!"

Which is true! I DO always have something going. Most recently, I formed The Compelled Bloggers Community with Craig Vroom, did a live Google Hangout on Air for #USedchat, and last week I hosted a linky party on my blog. 

Tomorrow night I'm doing a GHO panel discussion on blogging with Sarah Thomas (@sarahdateechur) and the D.C. Metro Area Google Educators Group. On August 12th, I'm going to be interviewed by Brian Sztabnik for a Talks With Teachers podcast. 

So, yes, I admit it. I do have a lot going, but it's because I'm a learner. I'm curious and love learning something new. I also love teaching, and part of that for me is modeling and being able to understand the process, which means I have to do it myself in order to teach others. So while I'm doing lots of things, there are goals that I have that I want to reach. And if I'm not careful, the "things" that I'm doing can get in the way of staying on the path to my goals. 

Clear as mud?

Let's do this!

Edited 2022: During the summer of 2021, we said goodbye to the Compelled Bloggers Community, as we all moved into different directions in our personal and professional lives.