Creating digital stories

Hello, colleagues!

I have not had a great week. In fact, turning 33 hasn't been pleasant so far. We've had a rough week of testing, and I found out that I was not accepted to the Google Innovator Academy. Whenever I have a crisis of conscience, I like to reflect on myself, my curriculum, in this case, my application, and my future in education. It's hard not to be bummed even though I knew it was a long shot. It was my first attempt, and I don't think I presented how innovative I am as a teacher. One thing that became apparent to me is that I have to put myself out there. I have good ideas, but I need to present them. I can no longer let my introversion get in the way of my big and bright future. So with that, I am going to share a unit that I just finished with my students: creating digital stories.

What is a digital story? To me, a digital story is a story made digital. Seems simple enough, right? I'm not a Language Arts teacher, but I want to my students create historical stories. I want them to be creative but historically accurate. I don't want my students to retell history but instead present something in a new and different way. I'm not letting my students create stories over whatever they want, but they do have a choice in what they create.

So here is a quick and dirty version of creating digital stories in your American history classroom. 
1. Have the students choose a topic. In my class, they picked from a list of Colorado historical and modern topics. Students chose their top nine, and literally, everyone was able to get one of their top choices.

Ss being introed to CO history topics. Love hearing, on a Monday, "There are so many cool topics to choose from!" #sschat #edchat

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) February 27, 2017

2. Have the students briefly research the subject (5Ws) in order to find three characters (real people) involved in their topic.
3. After researching further, have the students pick one person that they will investigate. This individual will be the students' narrator (does not matter if male or female).
4. Have the students find an abstract idea that best fits with their person. It could be a "good" or "bad" abstract idea; in the end, they are using this open-ended concept to create an essential question that guides their story.

5. Have the students design a plot line that tells a STORY, not the personal history of this person. I told the students that their story could take place over no more than five years.
6. Have the students design their script. The script is the expanded version of the plot line entirely written out in first-person. The idea is that the student embodies their character as the narrator.
7. Have the students research to find images that they will use in their digital story. Students were required to find a new image every ten seconds. A minimum of eight of their images had to be found from Library of Congress, the Denver Public Library, or our local Pikes Peak Library District.

8. Have the students upload their images to iMovie in which they will recite their script over the images as a narration.

These are some of my favorite projects over the years...

This is a solid project that my students have done for six years. They really enjoy diving into Colorado history, they love having choice, and they enjoy designing iMovies. But a word of caution...

I just spent the last six hours retooling a SOLID project I've done for five years. How do Ts teach the same thing over and over every year?

— Rachel Jeffrey (@historicalipad) February 26, 2017

Thanks for reading. Because of Spring break (for two weeks!), my next blog will be on April 8th! I'll see you then :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

A day in the life...

Good morning colleagues! As part of my #sunchatbloggers group, we were tasked with creating this week's blog about a day in the life of an educator. I actually voted for this topic because I thought it would be interesting to look at my day versus another teacher somewhere else in the United States!

My day usually starts at 5:00 am. I am a morning person, but I am slow to wake-up. The first thing I do is get on my phone (SHOCKING, I know) and read through the news. I have a Google Pixel XL that has Google Now accessible when I swipe right. I've curated my "interest feed" there, so I am getting the latest political, tech, and local news. Then I go to Twitter and Palabre (my RSS feed app) and read updates there. Then I get up and get ready for my day.

School here starts at 7:45, but we are expected to be in the building by 7:20. I try to get to school between 7:00 and 7:20 because I like to read and respond to e-mails before school begins. I am also pretty lucky because 8th grade has morning plan. That allows me to eat breakfast and drink coffee during first hour while grading or setting up my room. I outline my curriculum in advance, so I am not "planning" for my day unless I come up with a brand new idea that I want to use.

That is my typical schedule, but on this day, I didn't get a plan because I had other things that I needed to do. Our district was having staff development the next day with various types of training. One of the instructors asked if I would put together a "passion project" presentation for a "speed dating" activity. I spent my plan time putting together a presentation on my most recent obsession: Boomerang for Gmail.

We actually have two plans, but, usually, the second hour is taken up by meetings. I had an IEP meeting that was also a transition meeting for the student going to high school next year. This conference lasted until right before my third-hour class.

In class, I taught students how to find primary source images for their digital stories. I spent my day walking students through Library of Congress, local libraries, and Creative Commons images. I literally spent my whole day talking "at" the students while they searched for pictures. It was a process, but the students learned a lot (and will hopefully think twice before stealing images from Google Images).

I've blogged about self-care quite a bit this year, and part of my self-care regimen is leaving school at school. I've been good this year about spending only an hour after-school working. It has taken me much longer to grade and get work back to the students (still trying to figure out real-time feedback in an efficient manner), but my stress levels have gone way down.

Another way to help my anxiety is by going to the gym or yoga studio right after my hour of after-school work. I've been pretty focused on going to the gym two days a week and the yoga studio four days a week. For the first time, I was able to do a difficult pose (camel position). I could tell my dedication to self-care is paying off!

The last two ways that I relieve stress after a long day of school is an hour of tv and a half hour of reading before bed (at 9 - I am a morning person, remember?). One of my favorite shows, Underground, just came back. If you are remotely interested in American history, it is a fantastic show, and the first episode was INSANE and unexpected! I haven't read any interesting books lately, but reading on my Kindle Paperwhite before bed has helped me read 14 of my 52 book goal for the year!

I finally feel like, after eleven years of teaching, that I am starting to figure out how to have a good day, both at school and home. Thanks for reading about my day as an educator. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Elevate.

Hello, colleagues!

I'm going to share an idea that I had this week that I'm pretty excited about. Every spring, eighth grade American history teachers partner with their Language Arts teammate to do a Civil War research paper. We've done this for the past eight years that I have taught here, and it's a unit that just doesn't excite me. I don't hate the project, but I am not a fan of the content or the fact that the students create a research paper. Civil War technology is not compelling; I cannot get excited about it in any capacity (and it includes photography, and I LOVE photography). I also don't want to grade 110 research essays after I've already had the students write three analytical essays throughout the year.

Every year I want to elevate the project. I'm not trying to make it better, but am more focused on creating something that works for my students and for myself. The lightbulb went off this week when I was thinking about my Google Innovator project. I decided that I wanted to do a "trial run" with this unit. If I do or do not become a Google Innovator, I believe in character education and want to continue to elevate my content.

So my plan is to have the students research a person from the American Civil War.

They will investigate the person and find a characteristic best demonstrated by this individual.

I then want the students to take this personality feature and try to emulate it in some sort of genius hour project. My thought is that it will lead to community building, whether in the classroom, in the school, or in the community of Colorado Springs. For example, say they choose Clara Barton who was a nurse. They pick the characteristic of selflessness. They emulate Clara Barton's selflessness by performing random acts of kindness for a stranger for a week. I'm still thinking this all through, but I want them to address my unit essential question: How can we emulate the best of the past? I'm also thinking about finding primary documents for them to access through Actively Learn, and they will continue with flipped learning.

This would only, however, take up my portion of the unit. So for my Language Arts counterpart, I was inspired by a colleague who sent me a Pinterest pin about a wax museum project. I asked my colleague if she would be interested in having the students research these people (together; we have a shared wall) then present their wax figure in her class. She just ate it up!

I tried to create an eclectic bunch of people to study because I'm hoping through this project that the students emulate the best of the past and also see themselves in history. I'm not sure if I could ask for anything more.

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Self-Care: that's what friends are for...

Greetings colleagues!

Yesterday morning it was 15°F in Colorado Springs. On frosty mornings, we have indoor morning duty. I was standing in the gym watching students converse with each other, and it reminded me of my own friendships growing up. My friendships as a kid were the most important connections I had with other people. My friends were my life. As we grow older, those friendships end, new friendships form and new types of friends emerge. Adult life can be so complicated!

I've realized, over the past few years, how important my adult friendships still are. I have a family that I treasure and a husband that I love, but I value my friends in such a way that they are my family away from "home" (i.e. Iowa). After reading a rather interesting article about friendships, a professor of communication in Ohio said that the three expectations of friendships are "somebody to talk to, someone to depend on, and someone to enjoy." I feel like my current group of friends fit this bill quite well.

Part of my self-care regimen has been spending more time with friends. Most of my friends are teachers, so we spend quite a bit of time decompressing from school. But we have really opened up as a group over the last couple of years, and we share close, personal secrets with each other. It is so nice to have people that I can go to for advice and support, and it is nice to be wanted to give my own input and encouragement.

So in honor of my lovely, fabulous, and marvelous girlfriends, here is an all-female playlist! 

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Taking risks

Happy Saturday, colleagues! I am going to start today's blog post with a story.

I have to finally admit something scandalous (in the teaching world): I am an introvert. I always wondered what was wrong with me, but when I started taking personality tests over the last couple of years, I finally found the diagnosis: introversion. I am excellent at faking it, at pretending to be extroverted. I struggle with starting conversations with people, but I have a friendly Midwestern face, so people often start talking to me. I smile when I'm uncomfortable, so again, it's a conversation starter. For some time when teaching, my introversion has been met with hostility, rumors, and frustration. I don't like being the center of attention, I'm somewhat shy, and I keep my personal life private. Human nature is to be social and connected. Apparently not sharing much about myself means I'm a cold person. So I struggled with collegial relationships. And I struggled.

Cue to five years ago as I am having the worst teaching year ever when I become a part of a group called TAH (Teaching American History). I've mentioned these people before. They helped me become the teacher that I am now. These people, these complete strangers, accepted me (for what little they knew of me), encouraged me to share bits and pieces about myself, and assured me that I am an influential and capable teacher (as many times as I needed to hear it). It was what I desired in my young career. I had new colleagues (from different schools) that supported me and helped guide me to my first presentation at a national conference at the age of 29.

I am so grateful for those people. They helped me make a mind shift, and every teacher knows when they've had one of those, and how it affected their career. Even so, I am still an introvert today (duh). I am better at making relationships (maturity goes a long way), and I am slowly sharing more about myself with others. It puts me in a vulnerable position, but it's necessary to evolve and develop as a teacher.

In order to evolve, I have to take steps outside my "normal" introverted personality. I did just that: I just applied to become a certified Google Innovator.

That is one scary screenshot. I did it. My application has been submitted. There is nothing more I can do but wait.

But even if I am selected, or rejected, I am proud of myself for taking that step outside of "normal." My little-introverted self is growing up and becoming the teacher that I said I would become when I interviewed at Skyview eight years ago.

So here goes... here is my application.

If someone were to direct a film about your life, what would it be called? (Maximum 5 words, 50 characters)
Just a small town girl

Transform: Share a specific example about how you are fostering a thriving innovative culture within your own classroom, school, or organization. (Maximum of 500 characters)
Five years ago, I was handed 150 iPads and said: “go!” Without training or guidance, I designed a digital curriculum for my US history classroom. I created flipped learning for students to learn basic content at home. In my classroom, students are using a project-based curriculum. Through researching essential questions, students are traveling in time, telling stories about Colorado’s past, and are creating digital content to share with the world. Through it all, I facilitate their learning.

Advocate: Link to a piece of content you've created that you think has inspired other educators.Show us a blog, a Hangout you've done, a poster or Infographic, a presentation resource, or something you're really proud of online that you'd love to share. Include your link here!
http://historicalipad.blogspot.com/ (of course I am sharing my blog - I am proud of the reflections I've had this last year!)

Grow: If you could become an expert in something that you aren't already good at, what would it be and why? (Maximum of 500 characters)
One thing that I would love to become an expert at is composing music. Listening to music is one way that I meditate each day, and I wish that I could create music to which I meditate. As a teacher, I love seeing students’ faces light up when they come into my room or when they enjoy a lesson that I am teaching. I wish that I could make random strangers’ faces light up when they listen to music that I’ve created.

Your Vision: Title
Using the Past to be Present

Your Vision: Brief Description: (Maximum of 250 characters)
Students are lacking desirable qualities such as empathy, perseverance, and drive. I would like to create a curriculum that uses historical figures to nurture these characteristics.

Your Vision: Solution (We’re looking for projects that are new and innovative. Please explain how your vision is suggesting a new-to-the-world solution or offers a fresh take on an existing solution. Maximum 500 characters)
I will design character developing curriculum in which students examine historical figures who embody these absent characteristics. Through exploring the past, developing digital stories, and undergoing experiential learning, students will develop these attributes. They will learn about the past through authentic characters' stories, which enables them to rewrite their future.


Vision Deck: Link to your public vision deck.

Vision Video: You have one minute to creatively explain your problem and your vision for tackling it! Please post a public YouTube link. Think of this as a visual and interactive complement to your Vision Deck. This is also an opportunity to let your passion shine along with your vision.

Imagine you are able to have coffee with one person (currently living) who would mentor you in support of your vision. Who would you pick and why? (Maximum of 500 characters)
I would have coffee with Ken Burns. He is incredible at telling stories that people didn’t know that they even wanted to learn! He could take this curriculum and elevate it. Students are incredibly visual, and a “Ken Burns style” video would capture their attention entirely. Mr. Burns also has a way with wording stories that challenge people to think while looking deep within themselves. That would be the whole point of this curriculum!

So there it is my friends - my application out for the world to see! Now I'm hoping for an early birthday present on March 13th!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

End of unit reflections

Hello, teachers! Sorry for the missing blog last week! I came down with a cold last Friday but felt the need to go photograph some beautiful frost in town that same day. I'm pretty sure I made myself sicker, so my mind was not ready for blogging last week :(

This morning I am reflecting on a unit that my classes completed on Friday. It was a four week unit over what I call the pre-Civil War era (1820s - 1859). For the first two weeks, students were put into large groups in which they "presented" a whole class lesson on a decade (purely giving content). For the last two weeks of the unit, the students worked individually in which they picked three events in one decade to dive "deeper" into. They used a tic-tac-toe board to pick the products that they wanted to create while also choosing the proficiency level that they wanted to demonstrate.

What worked: Most students enjoyed "teaching" for a whole class period (in a large group). They were nervous overall, but they shined in front of the class. This set them up for success in presenting in front of the whole class. I could tell that some students accessed their group presentation rubric as most students improved upon their eye contact and projection for their second presentation. I also liked that when students presented individually that they weren't required to show memorized content, but instead talked about what they created and how their events caused change (the essential question for the unit). This helped with their confidence and talking to their colleagues instead of just reading from the screen. I heard many students say that they enjoyed having a choice in their topic and product creation, and I felt having the tic-tac-toe board at this point in the year ensured the success as they were comfortable with choice (as opposed to the beginning of the year).

What didn't work: I liked the students taking on the class lesson piece, but I do not feel like I set up the students for success in their content presentations. This unit, more than any prior, made me realize how weak my students' research skills are. This could be a whole other blog topic - teaching students how to investigate on the internet. I don't feel like I train them well in this aspect, and to some extent, expect the students to come to eighth grade prepared with research skills. I know that this is wrong, and I know that my students don't know how to analyze and dive deeper online. Do I know how to teach the students to research on the internet? I'm not sure, but I feel like I need to scaffold their research better. Unfortunately, this means created focused research handouts for each topic. That is something I need to create over the summer if I want to do this unit again (and I know for sure that I do).

I need to, somehow, clean up my directions. I'm not clear if this was all on me, but my students were missing what they were supposed to DO for the second half of the unit. The students just wanted to regurgitate information, when I kept telling them to be persuasive; that they are trying to persuade someone to move to the historical location to ensure that the historical event happens (because, you know, they are time travelers). I know that when I go through their products that most of them will miss that mark.

One struggle (that I've dealt with in the past) is that the students want to make sure that they are doing the assignment "right," so they keep asking me how their product looks, they are checking in with me, and they are asking me questions. This prevented me from checking in with all of my students. I was also trying to get through their research handouts as they were working, but I could never find time. The missing feedback from me did not help the previous issue of my students repeating content instead of being persuasive.

And the BIGGEST problem with this unit is a student problem: time management. Even though I had checkpoints and due dates in place, they were not enough. The students put off their project until the last minute and then scrambled the night before presentations started. I told all of the students to be prepared to present on the first day, but in one class I had to go ask 19 students to present before I could find five students ready to go. I believe that next time I will have more stringent due dates and clearer time management strategies to ensure that their time management is on point. I heard many complaints that I gave too much homework, but it was evident that putting it off until the last minute meant that they had a lot of homework in one night! I wrote on the board how much time they had which effectively ended this complaint.

I had a frustrating week when it came to presentations, but in the end, I know that this was a solid first start to a new design for a unit. I am happy with what I created and am excited to "fix it" for next year!

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :)

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

Path2Empathy

Hello colleagues! I wanted to share with you a program that our school is currently participating in called Path2Empathy. It was co-created by a former SMS counselor Jennicca. The idea behind the program is that we are building empathy within our students and ourselves. From their website, Path2Empath says that this program should, "show students that seeing the world through another's eyes is essential to personal growth," that "practice and experience walking in another’s shoes demonstrates the importance of shedding at-risk behaviors in order to help others," and "students will build self-worth by contributing to a cause greater than themselves".

The first lesson of the program includes having the students take a seven-day challenge. The challenges include:

• Eat rice and beans for one meal a day
• Take a cold shower one time a day
• Sleep on the floor
• Drink only water (no other beverage)
• Wear only two outfits 
• Carry one gallon of water everywhere you go
• Walk to school
• No make-up
• No fast food
• No snacking or eating between meals

As part of the seven-day challenge, there are prompting questions to ask the kids. We are planning on having the kids blog about the challenges they chose and how they are feeling. Since us teachers are ALSO picking challenges, I thought it was apropos to answer the same questions as I blogged.

What challenge did you choose? I selected three challenges: eat rice and beans for one meal a day for seven days, drink only water for seven days, and wear no make-up. 

What do you expect to learn? I expected to experience the struggles of people in third world countries. I have to experience the struggles to empathize. 

What has been the most difficult part of the challenge? I honestly believed it would be a breeze to do these three challenges. I thought that wearing no make-up would be the toughest challenge. Even though I do not wear make-up when I do not go to school, I have always worn make-up in front of my middle school students. Shockingly enough, this has been the easiest challenge. The students finally said something on Friday - "Mrs. Jeffrey, you don't look all that different without make-up. You only look more tired, but it's because you're not wearing eye makeup."

The most difficult part of the challenge has been dealing with the weekend and real life with these challenges. I didn't have the best week, and I had some friends that had a rough week. One friend called out happy hour last night, and I was quick to join in. It wasn't until I was driving there that I remembered to only drink water, and boy did I have a little existential crisis! I relented and drank something other than water because I had a rough week, but I definitely realized my own privilege at that moment, and I even brought it up while we were sitting at the table.

It also was a challenge today to eat rice and beans. We had an Edcamp session today, and lunch is provided. I was going to eat rice and beans for breakfast, but then life happens, and I ran out the door with a quick and easy breakfast instead. I would love to go out to dinner tonight before a hockey game, but it is just not going to happen as I want to follow through on at least two of the three challenges! 

How has this experience changed the way you look at food and drink? These challenges made me recognize how easy food and drinks are available in America. Even though I regularly cook breakfast each morning, today I was able to grab a quick snack on the go. I can make coffee quite fast in the morning, or I have funds that allow me to stop at Starbucks. Our fridge is always stocked with food and drink to our delight, even when I say that there's "nothing" to eat.

Part of what is necessary to build empathy, instead of sympathy, is to show gratitude and be grateful for what I have. I think I need to start daily meditation is to demonstrate that gratitude each day.

Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :) 

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

#selfcare

Good morning colleagues! A couple weeks ago, I posted my resolutions for the year. Carla, a fellow #sunchatblogger, commented on my struggles and burnout with my #oneword2017: self-care. I never would have come up with that term on my own, and I'd been toying with the idea. Then this week I went to Marzano training in Denver for supporting beginning teachers. Little did I know that Tina would bring up the importance of self-care for teachers, and then the idea was cemented.

Tina led some fantastic discussions with ideas for self-care. The one that stuck out the most to me was music. Music has always played a significant role in my life! I never really thought about the idea of music changing my mood, but it happens all of the time. My husband makes fun of me for having so many playlists, but they are all created around my moods and feelings.

All of these discussions made me decide that I needed to create even more precise playlists catered around "self-care"; playlists that will help change my mood when I am having a particularly bad or stressful day. So yesterday, on Inauguration Day, on a Friday, after a long week, I put together a happy playlist to share with you.

As I said in the description of the playlist, "In a bad mood? Give this playlist an hour!"

I think I want to continue with a post once a month (or every other month) with ideas for self-care for teachers. We all need to make sure that we are taking care of ourselves!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the music. I'll see you next week :) 

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

High Reliability Schools

Good afternoon colleagues!

This past week, a co-worker and I sat in a team meeting. While completing the activity that was given to us, we had a side conversation about what we were doing. Our instructional coach provided us with a flip chart of Bloom's Taxonomy verbs and inquiry starters for each level. We were told to create a question for the top three levels of Bloom's. My partner and I had no problem coming up with these statements, and in fact, I was inspired to use one of the questions that day in my class!

My teammate wondered out loud if we were doing this activity because our school is actively seeking the level two High Reliability endorsement from Marzano. I hadn't even thought of it, but once she said it, it made sense. Our school just passed level one, so it makes sense that we would be working towards level two.

This made me think about three things this week: 1) what does level two entail, 2) how can I ensure that my teaching practices support level two, and 3) what has Marzano's High Reliability levels done for our school.

1. Level Two: Effective Teaching in Every Classroom: Our school has a committee that is working towards this process. The committee hasn't been secretive per se, but I will admit that most of the staff have no idea what exactly is going on. I do believe this is on purpose as the point is to make these practices common place within the school instead of people putting on a "dog and pony show" when the Marzano peeps come to town. I am lucky that a good friend is on the committee, so she's told me a few things about what Marzano is looking for. I still had to, however, do some online digging for more information. I found a decent PDF from 2014 that helped detail what I was looking for.

I feel like our school is doing a fairly decent job with level two, but we definitely have some work cut out for us over the next few months.

2. How do my teaching practices support level two: It is interesting to look at the indicators and see that it does not fall much on me, the classroom teacher. Many of the indicators come from administration or instructional coaches. What falls on me is clearly communicating with my grade level administrator, my evaluator, and the instructional coach on when I feel as though I am not being supported in these ways. I do think my teaching practices will come more into play if we attempt level three as a school. 

3. How things have changed at school: Now that I have a better idea of level two, it has become apparent how things changed from when I started teaching at Skyview eight years ago. In the last couple of years, I have noticed that I could request to attend trainings, or even more recently, I asked to co-teach with my mentee, and was enthusiastically given a "yes" and a "how can I help." For teachers to grow, they have to be given ways to further develop their pedagogy and curriculum. I do believe that our weaknesses, as a school, appear when talking about sharing effective instructional practices and being provided with clear, ongoing evaluations. It will be interesting to see if these practices change over the coming months, knowing that they have to change to achieve level two. 

I am aware that this post has been rather tedious and cumbersome, but it was something that I actually reflected on this week. I am excited for the changes that I've seen recently, and do wonder if this has something to do with it. Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week :) 

- Rachel

@historicalipad

My Teacherspayteachers website

New Year's Resolutions

Greetings colleagues! Welcome back after what I hope was a restful and relaxing winter holiday!

This morning I received an e-mail from a colleague who was excited to share work from innovative teachers in the district while also linking an article about innovative teaching. It spurred my idea for today's blog post!

As I read articles like this, I am always reflective about how I can improve my teaching practices. I am a thoughtful teacher - it is one of my strengths as I have grown much as a teacher (while also a weakness; I take things too personally while being reflective). I see within my units ones that are more innovative than others, and that's due to the frustration of being an "island."

I have come to realize, after the last five years of "iPad teaching" that I cannot do it all. Even though I have a good idea of what I'm doing in my classroom, I still need training, support, and colleagues who are willing to be risk-takers with me. But after five years, I am still an island. And I believe that is part of what is stressing me out and burning me out of teaching.

Bloggers have been focused this last week with #oneword2017 blog posts. I am jealous that I don't have one of these posts because I a) cannot come up with a word for myself and b) am so stressed out and burned out that I haven't worked hard at coming up with a term for my 2017 goals. So I am going to blog about my New Year's resolutions that have absolutely nothing to do with school.

Goal #1: Read 35 books before the end of the year. For many, this may not seem like a lofty goal, but I have to be intentional about reading each night. There are times where I feel pressured about school and make a choice to grade instead of read. There is simply no reason for that. My job is teaching, but that is not the only thing to me. With that, I also vow to read whatever book I want - it does not have to be educational, it does not have to be historical - if I want to read some chick-lit, well, I am going to do just that!

Goal #2: Exercise three times a week. I already know that I will not do this EVERY week of the year. Sometimes there are just weeks where I should workout, but will find it difficult to make the time. I made a vow that my exercise does not have to be something I do not enjoy. I don't like running. I don't particularly like hiking. I do, however, enjoy swimming, yoga, walking in Palmer Park, and lifting weights. Exercise is about being intentional and supporting one's physical and mental health. If I am not at my best health-wise, then I cannot be my best as a teacher.

Goal #3: Be invested in photography. I take pictures. I actually take pretty good pictures. I bought a new camera last summer that helps me take awesome pictures. This year, I want to take more pictures. Sure, I sell my photography online. But I take pictures because I enjoy seeing the final results. I like studying new photographic techniques that allow me to take pictures like a pro. So I want to create a new set of photographs at least once a month.

I know that most of this blog was not school-related even though this is an educational blog. But I also know that I have interests, outside of school, that need to nurturing as much as my teaching practices.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading! I'll plan on seeing you next week :) 

- Rachel
@historicalipad
My Teacherspayteachers website