How to Refresh and Get Ready for a New Year

Me enjoying the freedom of an unscheduled day

We teachers know that a "New Year" for us means something very different than for non-teachers. A "New Year" for everyone else means recovering after New Year's Eve and making a bunch of resolutions that are rarely kept. For teachers the "New Year" begins somewhere around the first week of August (where I live anyway).  The "New Year" for teachers means recovering from a summer of no lesson plans, no meetings, no conferences, no paperwork, no alarm clock, no headaches...you get the idea.  In the above picture, I had enjoyed another morning of waking up whenever I felt like it, watching the Today Show (and my girl Hoda), eating a breakfast made by my husband (I'm a lucky gal), sipping on my coffee, playing with my toddler and her dollhouse and having a "tea party", doing some yoga, organizing my sock and underwear drawer, and then I felt like taking a nap. So guess what? I did.

Now with just a few days left of this utopia, reality sets in. How am I supposed to be a grown up and wear grown up clothes and lead a bunch of non-grown ups through the educational abyss of Common Core?

I decided to give myself a much needed pep talk. And trust me, I will have to do this several more times throughout the course of the year. Maybe my pep talk will help some of you too. Here's some tips for gearing up for this "New Year":

1. Remember why you went into this profession in the first place. Why did you want to become a teacher? For the awesome, endless benefits? For the high salary? For the high pedestal that society puts us up on? Probably not. Now if your main reason for going into this profession was to have off your summer, well then since summer is almost over you're kind of...@$%&ed. And although that is a very nice perk, more than likely it wasn't the motivating factor in your career choice. So what was? Maybe you loved reading and writing and you wanted to share that love with young minds. Maybe you always struggled with math until you had one awesome teacher, so you wanted show that with the right person anyone can learn. Maybe you are creative and love to look at things in a different way, and you wanted to teach others how to be creative. Maybe you wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. Whatever your reason for originally deciding to become an educator, embrace it and cling to it. 

2. Remember what it was like to be a kid. No matter what age group you teach, 5 year olds or 18 year olds or in between, TRY to think back to that age.  When you were the age of the students you teach, what did you want most from your teacher? Did they have to know everything? Did they have to have perfect lesson plans? No. If you think back, your favorite teachers loved kids and were understanding when you made a mistake. Your favorite teachers enjoyed seeing you learn and grow as a person. Guess what? It may have been 30, 40 or even 50 years since you were a first grader, but those kids want the same things. Those kids in your class want a teacher who actually acts like they like kids. Trust me, this can be difficult I know (especially if you teach the middle and high school kids). Now for me, I feel that I have about the same attention span (and sadly the same sense of sick humor) as my sixth graders. But there are times when I get ticked off at them when they won't focus and listen to me. Then I think, "Can I really blame them?" So this forces me to rethink how I introduce a standard and try to make it as interesting as possible. I might not can reach all of them, but I promise you that I will definitely try. I expect respect from kids, no matter what age they happen to be. But let's stop expecting kids to be little adults. They aren't. They don't think like we do, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

3. Find something to look forward to.  Now if the one thing you look forward to is the last day of school, well you're $@%&ed. Don't get me wrong...I myself look forward to three-day weekends, Christmas Break, Spring Break, and the last day of school. I'd be lying if I said I didn't.  However, if that's the ONLY thing you are looking forward to then you are setting yourself for a yearful of disappointment. Find something that brings you joy...(I know joy must come from within, but some outside factors help too!). Perhaps you're a nerd like me, and you like new supplies...a brand new pack of Sharpies, a new pretty binder for those demon lesson plans, a fresh pack of bright Post-It Notes, or a new calendar.  Get excited about the new faces you will see walk through your classroom door. Reconnect and grab lunch during pre-planning with some teachers who will support you throughout the year. Rearrange your room or put up a new bulletin board. Take a professional learning course that actually interests you. Or you can try one new strategy in your classroom.  Whatever works for you, just have SOMETHING to look forward to besides the last day of school.  If you don't, you just might miss out on some really awesome moments in between.

4. Find the thing you don't do well and don't do that thing. Okay, I have to admit that I stole this from the World's Most Interesting Man commercial, and it's funny, but true. I don't do well when I have too many irons in the fire. Some of us have a tendency to volunteer to do too much at school. I am one of those people. It is important for everyone to be a part of a learning community, but don't be that person that agrees to do everything for everyone. Other people can step up and contribute (and if you're a teacher who doesn't do anything but "show up", maybe try and sign up to do one thing for your school). Last year I was in charge of the yearbook, helped out with the drama club, tutored foster kids after school, created an end of the year slideshow for awards day, and was on the positive behavior committee. Nobody made me do these things; I did this all on my own but adding all my other normal teacher responsibilities in with this, I was completely spent by the end of the year. I decided I want to be better, not bitter. So this year I'm focusing on being a more effective teacher, and on taking better care of my physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and my family's well-being. My fellow educators, I suggest you try to do the same.

Happy "New Year" to all my fellow friends out there!  

Please share your back to school advice with me in the comments below.