My wishes for the new year...tighter, stronger, better for our students

The art of teaching is complicated.  As I dig into my National Boards, I'm realizing how my students needs are even more diverse than I realized.  In one class I have students who range from a 5-college reading level, 5 home languages, 6 ethnicities, and almost 10 very different IEPs.  Wow.  Am I doing everything to help everyone?  My literacy colleagues and I are painfully aware of our shortcomings and constantly working at making things tighter, stronger, and better for our students.  What I love about my department is that we don't make excuses. When we're in the thick of it we just tackle as many things as possible.  We take calculated risks, not fearing new ideas and taking the best from each past decision.  After writing about my classroom over winter break, I'm thankful for the kind of collaboration and collegiality we share; I'm not sure I could be half the teacher I am without my team.  

So, for myself, as I look at the bigger picture of unacceptable shortcomings of our most struggling students and incredible achievements of our academic rock stars, I hope to strengthen my mindsets around a few things.  It feels so good to be at a place in my profession where I can genuinely look at each kid and see potential and not get lost in the minutia of behavior and grades.  Maybe that'll change next semester, but it happens less and less.  Here's what I want to tackle now:

• Finish my portfolio without the fear of failure and only the goal of improving my craft, even if that means not passing the first go around
• Continue to improve my time management so I can enjoy my own life
• Be brave enough to speak out when things could be improved upon and brave enough to get out of the way; sometimes I do this well, sometimes I'm lopsided
• Sit with ideas longer before responding; it's a quick-witted job but sometimes that's the problem