Celebrate This Week 1.03.15

It's always good to end the week on a positive note.  Sometimes we concentrate on the negatives.  We have a choice.  Choose positive.  Choose to celebrate.  I will be joining Ruth Ayres and her weekly link-up, Celebrate This Week.  Check out all the other celebrations HERE

Today I am celebrating the start of 2015.  A new year always means new beginnings.  Going with that direction, I'm thinking of my 2015 #OLW and #Nerdlution15 goals/ideas/challenges.

Last year my #OLW was encourage.  I reflected back at my word in Tuesday's post and I was pleasantly surprised with how I incorporated my OLW throughout the year. 

I am glad that I was able to use my word last year and make an impact on my school, the students, and even at home.  This year, I am going to change directions a bit.  We all know how the last few years in education has brought about a lot of change - in curriculum, in how we teach, in how we assess, in how we are assessed.  Being a reading specialist has not made me immune to these changes.  Two years ago, I worked solely with reading intervention students.  I used mostly scripted intervention programs and concentrated primarily on those students.  I was also starting to read more books and try to get them in the hands of students.  I didn't have much contact with the other students in my building, but I knew there were great books out there that they would enjoy reading.  Last year my role started changing.  Instead of just being a reading specialist, I started taking on new roles.  I started coaching - working with teams of teachers.  And I started planning grade level lessons.  Soon, this took up the majority of my time.  One nice change was being able to see more students in the school.  I was able to share books and titles with more students than before.  However, the amount of time I had to work with reading students was impacted.  This year, I'm trying to do both - work more with my students, but still do some coaching.  Right now, it's too much.  I have quite a few students on my caseloads, new teachers to help mentor, and planning lessons and professional development.  So my One Little Word this year is going to be direction.  I need to figure out how I can work best in this role.  It's going to take some time, but I hope by the end of the year I have a better idea which direction I'm going in!

It's also time to think about Nerdlution!  There have been a few rounds of Nerdlution - basically you choose something that you would like to be habit forming... try working on it for a set number of days and see where it takes you.  I've stayed away from it the past couple of times.  I didn't want to commit to anything.  But, there are a couple of things I would like to get in the habit of, so here goes.

Nerdlution #1
I want to change my snack habits.  I'd like to stay away from a straight flour carb.  They are the easiest to grab and usually more tasty than other choices.  My next big race is at the end of February.  I'd like to kick the carb snacks and see if it helps my overall health.

Nerlution #2
I want to lift weights twice a week.  Right now, I've been working with my trainer once a week and then I did a class once a week where weights were sometimes used.  I have to stop taking that class in order to get another running day in to prepare for the race, so I'd like to pick up another day, and one where I use weights more than a little bit.  My trainer helped put together a plan for me that I can use on the day I'm not working with him.  I just need to get into a habit of this now.

Nerdlution #3
I think this is going to be one of the harder ones.  I have A LOT of professional literature books.  I'd like to read some of them, but when I have little amounts of reading time, I like to spend them with kid lit books.  My goal is to read one chapter/week of a professional lit book.  It will probably be done over the weekend.

We'll see how it all goes.  Much to accomplish!
Happy 2015 to all!