I am an absolute lover of lists. I make to-do lists like my life depends on them and I have a bad habit of owning multiple planners for the same calendar year. Actually, I bought a Lilly Pulitzer Aug. 2015-Dec. 2016 agenda and then just purchased a Goal Digger Jan. 2016-Dec. 2016 planner, but I am now considering switching back to my Lilly. It’s truly an endless cycle with me when it comes to keeping my life organized. I swear this rant pertains to this blog post. As I was trying to come up with ways I can obsessively make to-do lists today, I had a eureka moment. Not only do I now have an excuse to make a personal new years resolution list, but I can now excusably make a professional one! So, alas, here are my resolutions for the remainder of the 2015-2016 school year and the beginning half of the 2016-2017 school year!

1. Become better at planning lessons in advance: It’s probably not decent to admit this, but I am really bad at planning my lessons. I have some sort of natural ability to fly by the seat of my pants when I’m teaching. Somehow I can fill the 45 minute period easily without prior written consideration, however, it is a bad habit that I should probably stop acting on. It is just so hard, especially when concert season arrives, to break out of our daily routine of warm-ups, sight reading (we use the Sing on Sight method books) and concert rehearsal. I definitely want to improve upon this in the upcoming semester.
2. Continue to support my students outside of the classroom: During the first three months I did really well at supporting my students at their football/cheerleading and volleyball games. Unfortunately as the semester dragged on and the pre-concert workload got heavier I found myself becoming increasingly less interested in staying at school even longer to watch my student athletes. I hope I can find the motivation in January to stay for these events.
3. Bring fun, new ideas to the classroom: This will be an easy accomplishment after attending the 2016 Ohio Music Education Association Professional Development Conference. This is easily one of my favorite weeks of the year! I am so lucky to live in a state that has one of the largest music education conferences in the country. I can’t wait to attend this year as an employed teacher, so that I can attend sessions that are specifically geared towards my curriculum!
4. Plan and create over the summer: I have a feeling that my motivation towards work will significantly decrease when the warm summer months come to play. I hope that I can use my off time (even though I will probably pick up a second job) to plan towards the next school year, now that I know what to expect when the first days comes around!

I’m sure I will come up with more ideas as the first few weeks of January come around, so don’t be surprised if this post continues to develop past today.

On a funnier note, check out these other teacher resolutions: Teacher Resolutions