The Beginning of a New Year

School started 3 weeks ago in the midst of flurry and change. Not only was I in the midst of moving from lush and plush North Vancouver to a house on Vancouver's south-east side, I was also changing classrooms at school, and I managed to squeeze in a wedding over the long weekend before school started. Needless to say, I didn't feel as prepared as I usually am or like to be. There was a lot of "winging it" which I've learned is not the best teaching strategy! But now that we're 3 weeks into the year, the normal routine has begun to take over and things are flowing quite well.

At the beginning of each school year, my friend Sean always makes "new year's resolutions" and I've always liked the idea of thinking of ways I can change and improve in the next school year, (although I'm not quite as thorough and consistent about it as he is). The biggest thing I want to work towards this year is to not just do all the same stuff from last year, but to build on, tweak, and improve upon all my lessons, units and activities. Sounds easy, right? But when life gets stressful, I know I'll want to just flip on the auto-pilot and do the same-old-same-old. But I don't want that.

There are plenty of other things that I hope to do this year as well - read more, start playing guitar again, improve my French (so my students aren't handicapped, but also for me!), do Bible studies with someone, start working out again, and maybe even ride my bike to school when it's not raining.

My new classroom ready for the first day of school

My kidlets doing art during the first week of school

Even though the year started off a little rough, I have a sense that it's going to be a good year. I've got good kids, I work with good people, at a good school.... what more could I ask for?