Am I Dreaming or Is That The Ground Coming Up to Meet Me?

Well, it's not Thursday but I made it. A blog a week - my pledge. 

I started out Thursday with the best of intentions. Had a meeting early in the evening and intended to blog when I got home. Then it happened. I fell. It was all rather balletic and seemed to take eons but when all was said and done I was face down on the lawn. God, its traumatic! Since no one was around to laugh, I did it myself. I think it was shock or maybe PTSD but there I was planted on the lawn with the giggles. Collected myself, nothing broken, and made my way to the car. By the time I got to the meeting my knees and right arm were screaming. By the next morning the rest of my body was in agreement. Lovely purply yellow bruises began cropping up in strange places. It's a tale as old as time. Falling sucks!

The worst part is that my right arm is my blogging arm so.... Oh well, it's worth a try. Actually, Thursday was out due to trauma and the rest of the week slipped by in a haze of mini-saga/iMovie craziness. I still can't figure out how to share it. 

Time management remains a challenge but I'm getting there. As long as I do something techish every day I'm happy for now. I just wish something would go smoothly. That would be nice. Learning is hard. Fun but hard. Guess that's a good lesson for a teacher.  

Thursday

One down and three more to go. State ELA tests that is. Can't wait 'til they are behind us and we can get back to some meaningful work. I've been doing test prep since we got back from the holidays and it's pure drudgery. I worry about my students because they are struggling readers and writers and I want the test to be familiar and non threatening for them so we've been going over old tests. The kids are not happy but I hope it works. I hope when the test is set in front of them it is second nature. We'll see.

After next week we'll get back to digital storytelling and I can't wait. I've been thinking a lot about constructivism and how I can apply it to my teaching. I think I have a tendency to lead too much and I am determined to do a little more following. That's my new year's teaching resolution. Talk less, listen more. We'll see. 

Resolved

I'm curious. Are good time managers born or can they be nurtured? If it's genetic I can blame my DNA for my lifelong proclivity for procrastination. On the other hand, if time management can be learned, sign me up. 

I'm not big on new year's resolutions...too much pressure, but I think this year I'll take a shot at self improvement. I've resolved to try and organize my time so as to maximize productivity and minimize last minute anxiety attacks. I think baby steps are probably the best idea here so I'm starting with TEAM. The laundry and vacuuming can wait for 2010. Meanwhile the time I spend on the computer will be organized so that I spend more time on things that are actually productive and less time on things that cause me to bleary-eyed. So here goes...

• Blog every Thursday
• at least 1 hour every night learning or perfecting a new technology
• no more than 1/2 hour a day on the time devouring FaceBook (this includes Scramble)
• no more than 1/2 hour a night on StumbleUpon (must be completed before 9pm)
• reduce daily email checks from 5,000 to 2
• Check in to Quick Topic discussion boards at least 3 times weekly

I'm sure there's contingencies I haven't considered so I'll stay slightly flexible but at a minimum the first four will be non negotiable (and believe me I'm a pro at negotiating with myself). Looking forward to being wildly productive. Too optimistic? Hmmmm.

BTW, they say if you write things down you're more likely to see them through. Plus now I've blabbed it all over the place so I guess I'm (what's that word?) committed. Or will be.