Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2013!!

With the new year, comes a time for reflection and a time for looking ahead. The students and I had a long discussion about New Year's Resolutions - Who makes them? What do they mean? Why should we make them? How do you decide what your resolution should be? After answering these questions and many more we took some time to reflect on our year in 2nd grade thus far.

I challenged the students to think about what has gone well for them so far. What good choices have they made? What is something that seems to be working well for them? Then I really put them to the test and asked them to think about what wasn't working so well. It is hard for adults to talk about what they would like to change in themselves, let alone a group of 7 and 8 year olds - but once again, my students impressed me! They knew right off the bat what areas needed working on, from keeping their desk organized, to studying more in math. Some students even said they needed to work on paying attention more in class. Others wanted to focus on something from home, like getting better at baseball by practicing in the backyard with Dad.

After a great brainstorming session, we were able to get our thoughts down on paper. The students were able to set not one, not two, but THREE goals for themselves: a school goal, a personal goal, and one additional one of their own choosing. They wrote down each goal and more importantly, HOW they were going to follow through with their goals.

We shared our goals with each other, and they are now hanging proudly in the hallway for all to see and for us to hold each other accountable. We will check in sporadically throughout the rest of the year to see how we are doing on our goals.