Getting Back into the Swing of Things

It has been almost a year since my last blog post. A lot of learning has taken place since then, but at the same time, a lot of slacking off has taken place, too. It's time for change. I vow to do what I can to keep the learning going and the slacking slacking.

There comes a place in time when a person has to rethink his/her attitude toward things and midway into the school year last year, I was at that place. For a long time I was dissatisfied about the direction a lot of things were headed in my school, and I found my attitude going downhill fast. I let myself get caught up in the negative attitudes of others, and before long discovered that I was there, too. And then one day I woke up and realized that I can't change the situation, but I can change the way I look at things. That has made a whole world of difference.

As a result, here I am, trying to get into the swing of things again. I'm doing what I can to constantly educate myself on the things that are important to me. So what does that look like?

Blogging:
I started my blog over a year ago, but once the newness of it died, so did my posting schedule. While I may not have a group of blog followers, I can still use my blog as a method to reflect on my learning. It doesn't matter if anyone reads this...what matters is that I am doing something to reflect on the thoughts that come to me as I continue on this journey.

Twitter:
I'm making a concerted effort to utilize all the benefits of Twitter. While it takes a lot of time to find people to follow, I'm finding that my excitement is growing along with my "follow" list. There are a lot of brilliant minds out there so I might as well take advantage of them while I can. And who knows...my ego may get fed just a little if I can up my "followers" as well.

Skype:
I'm working on a new venture that involves using Skype within my classroom. I have a beautiful niece who teaches 6th grade in Arkansas, so why not take advantage of that connection and give my students the opportunity to learn from hers? It is going to take some work to pull this off, but I see a multitude of benefits resulting from our efforts. And I'm hoping that our success will encourage the other educators in both buildings to do similar global projects.

These are just a few of the things I'm doing right now to make myself a better teacher for my students. While I will get frustrated and stumble once in a while, it is still better than becoming complacent. If I become stagnant, so will my teaching.