Resolutions

Happy New Year! Well, I'm jumping the gun. I should really be saying that at midnight tonight. Confused? As a teacher, I always feel like the rollover from July to August is much more the start of a new year than the actual year change and holiday. And with my new year starting tomorrow, I feel there are some resolutions I want/need to make with regard to the new school year. While I have been a working mama before when I went back for the last nine weeks of school last spring, going back to work in just two short weeks will be very different. Lawson is a different baby than he was two months ago with a completely different schedule. I feel it will be even harder to go back to work this time around than it was in the spring knowing that I have 36 weeks of work to get through before I can spend each day with him again versus the nine weeks I had to get through the first time. With all of that said, there are some vows I'm making to myself as I sport my working mother hat here in a couple of weeks. Here they are:

1. No working on anything for school before Lawson goes to bed.

Justin and I are probably crazy but we are working opposite schedules again once school starts. While we don't see too much of each other, Lawson doesn't have to go to daycare. I don't have anything against daycare, but we can make this arrangement work for us, so we do. Lawson has been going to bed lately around 8 p.m. (sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later) so that will give me a few hours in the evenings to work on what I need to before I go to bed. Sidenote: With my school hours changing, I don't have to leave for school until around 8 a.m. each morning so I get to nurse Lawson when he wakes up and spend an hour with him before I go to school, which is awesome.

2. No school work in the bedroom.

I have a really bad habit about taking work to bed with me. However, I always get too sleepy to do it and it never gets done. Plus, I want to really relax at night before I go to sleep. I decided that I will keep all school work out of the bedroom. I already removed all the books/papers/workbooks/etc. that were cluttered on the floor and they will not be going back in!

3. Work on Friday nights when Lawson goes to bed.

That doesn't sound like fun does it? Well, Justin will be at work anyway so I figure if I can still work on school stuff on Friday nights when Lawson goes to bed then I won't have to work as much when Lawson is awake on the weekends, and hopefully I won't have as much to do on Sunday nights when I normally try to cram it all in and get depressed about Monday approaching way to quickly.

4. Save the TV for the weekend.

I love TV (and I'm not afraid to admit it) and DVR a lot of shows. I can get distracted by these pretty easily. I honestly feel accomplished when I can delete shows off the DVR. Silly, I know. So I'm going to try and save my shows for the weekend. This will allow me to get more done during the weekday evenings and hopefully not have as much to do on the weekend.

5. Make more good phone calls home to parents.

No parent likes to get the call that little Susie or Johnny is doing poorly in school and I certainly don't like making those calls. However, they must be done. So in order to make phone calls home to parents a little more bearable, I want to start making some good phone calls to parents. I'm sure some parents will love to hear that their son/daughter is doing great...what parent wouldn't?

6. Grade, grade, grade.

I always get behind in grading. Always. So once again, like I swear I'll do every school year, I will try to keep up on my grades. Hoping some other resolutions will help this one to fall into place.

7. Say no.

Want to serve on this committee? Sure! Want to help with this event? Absolutely! Want to give up your entire prep period to do me a favor? Yes! That's how I used to be. I feel like I'm always saying yes to everything. However, I'd like to say no more this year. I need all of my time during my prep period and when Lawson goes to bed to work on grading and planning so I don't want to take on anything else to take away from me not getting done what I need to get done. Doing that would ultimately take away from time with Lawson which I definitely don't want!

8. Implement new lesson plans and activities.

With four years of teaching under my belt, I feel very comfortable with knowing what works and what doesn't. However, I think that a teacher can get into a rut of just using the same lessons and activities all of the time, and I'd like to implement some new things that I've had floating around in my head and see how they work.

9. Get to know more students on an individual level.

It's easy to get to know the student that raises her hand each day in class and is outgoing, but it's difficult to get to know the student that sits in the corner in the back of the room. While I do my best, I don't get to know all of my students like I'd like to. I'm going to try to remedy that this year.

10. Have fun!

The Leavell household will not be ready for me to be a stay-at-home mama anytime soon and that's OK. In the meantime, I'd like to try and have fun this year and really enjoy my time at school as well as at home.

Here's to a good year!