Our school has gone to extended days this year, so it has been a shift to teach until 3:45 each day. When my yearbook students walk out the door at the sound of that last late bell, the school is relatively quite. There are a handful of classes during this block, but they are spread out, and the vast majority of students have already gone home. I see a grade 9 student grabbing their backpack after the volleyball practice that was going on during 9th period. I stop and say hello to my fellow block 5 comrades who are also adjusting to this new and still unfamiliar shift in the day. I'm still feeling a little bad about the Physics students I had to turn away at 2:20 - they came for help at the end of "their" school day, not realizing it wasn't the end of mind. I remind myself that they will adjust. A few student council kids are waiting to ask questions by my door. I'm impressed that their were willing to wait the 80 minutes through block 5 just to have a 30 second conversation. The piles of papers on my desk are already growing, and I have to do's written on sticky notes and scrap papers, hand written in iPad apps, and typed into reminders. iCal flashes me a notification that I have to pick up ribbon on the way home. I hit ignore for the third day in a row - it can wait. I drop a 20 pound stack of old yearbooks on my desk that I had carted downstairs. There are sticky notes from my editors peaking out from a few of them. This years book is already being conceptualized. For a moment I get really excited. If we can pull this off, we're going to raise the bar. The challenge is both frightening and exhilarating. I have a look at the Physics quizzes and decide that I'll mark them at home. I pack up, dig out my sunglasses and chuck as much paper as I think I'll have time to deal with into my pack back along side the half eaten lunch I didn't have time to finish. Seems that in light of this new schedule, the days have been getting away from me. "Not enough time" is on repeat quietly in the back of my mind. I find myself pausing from time to time, asking myself, "how can I do this more efficiently?" But then I realize that I don't have time to figure out the answer, and continue working through my list.
As I'm walking out the door, I stop to say goodnight to my neighbour - one of the handful in the block 5 crew this semester. We catch up briefly, share an anecdote from each of our classes that day, and confirm our progress on a field trip we are attempting to book - we're both in a holding pattern. And in the midst of recapping our day she mentions goals. "I'm really liking what the school is doing with staff goals and looking for connecting ideas with in them. I think it's great that our department goals are going to reflect our personal goals." To be honest, I hadn't really thought about it. I mean, I did sit through a Pro-D workshop 2 weeks ago about personal goals. And I filled out my personal goal sheet this past weekend. Our science department met and set department goals. And I attended an assembly with my grade 11s that talked about goal setting and the 10,000 hour rule. Oh, and I planned a follow up lesson for my discovery class about goal setting. but to be honest, I hadn't really thought about it. Until now.
At this exact moment, 4:09 on a Tuesday afternoon, it was like each one of those individual conversations found sitting in the recess of my mind had instant playback. I had been processing them subconsciously, and had so many thoughts and ideas. If my life were a movie, insert moving "AHA!" moment montage; the music crescendos, the camera moves in to my eyes and the light goes on. Goals. THEY'RE EVERYWHERE.
"I have to go blog about this!" Is my first thought. Which was also my goal I set last year. and again this year. In fact one of the first things I blogged about here was goal setting (almost 2 years ago) and I checked in on those goals again last year. I wanted to blog about my goal epiphany on a blog which is a goal inself, on a blog which is, not purposefully, full of posts on goals. It has an "only in the movies do things come this perfectly pull circle" quality to it, right?
Of course, now I've wasted all my time with this grand revelation and didn't get to say anything about my actual goals. So I'll save that for another post. Disappointed? Don't be. I'll be back. That's my goal after all.
