Teachers are lucky. We get two "New Years" to set resolutions and make changes.
January and August.
I love the start of school (most years...) and this year brings on a whole new burst of excitement and energy. I start each year with a few changes or points of focus that I want to put my attention to. A few years ago, I started this blog. And while I don't get the opportunity to post as often as I would like (you should see the number of posts I have started and never had the time to go back and finish...) I still enjoy writing about what goes on in my classroom. Whether you are a parent of one of my middle schoolers, a teacher looking for ideas, or a friend of mine who just likes to see what I'm doing, hopefully you all find something interesting about this blog.
Last year my focus was survival. Maternity leave is hard. I wanted to survive and not completely hate coming to back to school after new little baby was born. That didn't really work until the end of the year when I had a renewed spirit.
This year my focus is communication with parents.
I am well aware that getting information out of teenagers about their day at school is about as easy as breaking into a bank vault.
So I want to help with that.
I have come up with a cool way to communicate with parents what my classroom procedures are, what cool lessons we did in class, and what we have coming down the line (student teacher, field trips, etc...)
I call it Weber Wednesdays
I plan to post a YouTube video of myself explaining various parts of my classroom to give parents a peak inside our walls. The videos will start out every week for a while and then taper off to an "as needed" basis.
The cool thing. I think parents and members of our community are really going to appreciate it.
The not so cool thing. I want to throw up every time I push "POST." A video of myself out in the big bad world of social media, scary. (Seriously...I'm getting a little queasy just typing this out.)
This is WAY outside my comfort zone.
But when I think about what I'm doing and what the purpose it, I come to another conclusion. Stepping outside our comfort zones only can lead to the discovery of new talents, new strategies, and personal growth. These are things I want my students to do, and that I ask them to do on a regular basis. Why wouldn't I want to model those actions.
Because I hate videotaping myself.
But I'm going to do it. And I hope the sensation to vomit goes away after the first few Wednesdays.
