2015 Goals

2015 is just around the corner and resolutions and goals are on the mind.

More blogging is definitely one of my goals however you will not find it on my resolutions list. I have deliberately left it off the list to save room for other more achievable goals and so I won’t face the blog guilt when/if I don’t achieve it!

To start the year off on the right track (with a blog post) I’m joining Second Grade Nest with a 2015 Resolutions Linky.

 Here are 5 of my 2015 goals!

And a couple of extra goals. 

For my teaching professional goal I want to continue learning in my favourite area, literacy and teaching reading and writing. A long-term goal of mine is to become a literacy coach or specialist and I have loved studying Reading and Writing Difficulties for my masters this year.

Another professional goal is for my Teachers Pay Teachers store. It is more of a general or widespread goal to become more active by creating more products for my class and to share, linking up with other stores and bloggers and learning more about both the business and classroom practice. Broad I know but there are lots of little goals in there!

A personal goal of mine is to stop shopping! GASP! Yes a tough one I know. I have managed to live for 2 years on a remote island with only minimal online shopping. On visits to Brisbane however, I have hit the shops and bought myself all sorts of goodies from clothes to shoes to jewellery. My fear now is that having the stores just a short drive a way is very dangerous. 

I want 2015 to be more about the experiences not the material things. Yes I know I want those shiny new shoes but do I really NEED them? Probably not. So 2015 will be the year of wearing things until they fall apart. Clothing, shoes, jewellery and underwear (holes are acceptable in my opinion)! By working towards this goal I am also helping myself achieve goals 1, 2 and 4 from above, winning!

Check out Sarah Wilson’s blog posts for her take on material things and some inspiration; Why Iwore the same pair of green shorts for 8 years and Buy experiences not things.

Get active! Notice I didn’t use the word exercise? I think getting active sounds better don’t you? That means walking my chocolate labby Dexter, escaping to the beach, finding some bush walks outside of Brisbane and generally getting out of the house. I think it can be done.

 

So there are my goals. What are yours? Leave a comment below to share….

 

Thanks to Second Grade Nest for the Linky!

Motivational Monday Freebie - Guided Reading Planning and Observation Pages

So I’ve finally been able to finish off some of my ‘half finished’ products that were piling up on my desktop and I’m happy to announce that every Monday I will be giving you a freebie product.

I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Sundays. Love because it is a day off and time to relax or catch up on some work. Hate because as the day goes by I know Monday morning is approaching and I need to say goodbye to the weekend and muster up some Monday motivation.

I’m hoping my Monday freebies will give you a bit of extra motivation for the week ahead (or just something of use for your classroom or home).

My first Motivational Monday Freebie is a copy of my guided reading planning and observation sheets. Get it for free here or have a look through my TPT store. I use this printable for my guided reading groups. The planning sheet allows me to map out my lesson, choose a focus and write questions for before, during and after reading. It also has a spot for me to note new vocabulary, sight words and phonemes that are in the text.

The observation sheet provides a space to record reading behaviours the students are using and make a note of future work or lessons each student will need.

I keep multiple copies of this in my guided reading folder and when I’m done file the sheets under each reading group. They are great to refer back to and use come reporting time. I hope you enjoy this freebie and have a wonderful Monday! Remember the weekend is only 5 days away.

JOMO – What?

More like "Teacher at the end of Week 5 Term 1!" 

After an extremely busy school week including numerous 10-hour days I made it to Friday and collapsed on the couch with my dearest husband Lee (who has been my house husband this week cooking, washing and doing a lot of dishes).

We all know a teacher’s job goes beyond 9-3pm weekdays. If I hear someone tell me how great my working hours are again I might just resort to an angry outburst. This week I have struggled with fitting it all in and have developed a neck pain that I’m sure is from a combination of my ever present “To Do List” and my anger at not having a 27 hour day instead of 24! “Just 3 more hours a day is all I need,” I whine to Lee this week.

I woke up this morning with my never ending To Do List floating around in my head and decided to push it to the back of my mind. I must say although my thoughts drifted to the classroom, darling Johnny’s behaviour, sweet Jenny’s reading development and little Jimmy’s counting difficulties, I’m glad I’ve done it. A day of cooking, cleaning, reading and drinking cups of coffee while browsing mindless trash on the internet has done me wonders. Yes I can hear you all now. “She thinks cooking and cleaning was better than doing school work?” Yep! Crazy right.

During my Internet browsing I did find the time to clean out my 355 emails (345 of which were junk I’ve subscribed to and never read) and finally found the time to read some blog posts (which are not to be confused with the junk emails)! I came across a post from Sarah Wilson’s weekly blog titled ‘the joy of missing out’ (read it here) or JOMO. “JOMO – what?” I say.

JOMO or the joy of missing out is 2014s newest ‘thing’. Apparently 2013 was the year of FOMO – fear of missing out (described as negative feelings of nervousness, anxiety and envy that you are in fact missing out and that other people are experiencing better things than you). Well I guess living on a remote island I miss more than just general news and current events. I missed out on FOMO last year! Or actually being aware of FOMO! Funnily enough sometimes being away from friends and family we have felt a fear of missing out. Missing significant birthdays, parties, social events and our good friend’s wedding last year brought on those feelings of ‘missing out’.

On the other hand being able to walk 15 metres from work to home and spend quality time with Lee and some trashy TV on a Friday night brings on feelings of happiness and relaxation for me! After a long week of work I can’t imagine wanting to travel home through the city, get dolled up and go back out again on a Friday night to socialise. People often ask what do you do on the island? Well work, work and more work is my answer. When I’m not working I’m doing what I call ‘nothing’ or what others call ‘being lazy’ or ‘veging out’. One of the perks of living remote is being able to just do nothing! Go on; call me a grandma or a homebody or a hermit!  Don’t get me wrong I love going to Brisbane and seeing people and actually having a social life but I also get excited about shutting out the world and having a date with a few episodes of Suits, Dexter or SATC (oh and Lee of course)! This is when I’m feeling JOMO.

Who would have thought doing nothing today would bring such a wealth of new knowledge and vocabulary for 2014 hahaha! And as an added bonus for today that horrible neck pain has disappeared! I’m making a new resolution to have my ‘nothing’ day or night more often just so I can experience the wonderful feelings of JOMO.

But wait a second. Not doing schoolwork and relaxing might just bring on some FOMO. Missing out on getting some work done. Hhhmmmm no I think I’ll ignore that thought and bring back the JOMO! 

Hope you are enjoying your weekend too.

It wasn't all homebody activities today. 

Squeezed in a walk at low tide