A New Start

Does this look like a list of your resolutions?  There are some great ones on there for sure!  A new year bring about a time of reflection and resolution and new year is no exception to that rule.

There are two times of the year that are my favorite, and both times are a time for reflection, resolutions, and new starts.  The beginning of a new (calendar) year and a new school year allow me time to regroup and restart. 
Obviously, teachers love a new school year, because of a whole class of new students and a time to put all of that summer professional development to work, but the beginning of a new calendar year excites me even more.  I find it refreshing to be able to reflect on my teaching practices of the first semester of school and think about what worked, what didn't, and what kinds of new strategies or programs I would like to begin. 
Maybe you have noticed (or maybe you have not), but blogging has taken a backseat since this school year began.  Sometimes blogging can be difficult, because you get stuck in rut and I tend to think that I have nothing of interest to others to share.  As I thought about the new year and looking at blogging again, I thought about why I began blogging in the first place.  I began this blog for the simple fact that I wanted to share what it is like for a special education teacher that teaches in a resource classroom and is coteaching in regular education classrooms and in some ways I feel like I got away from that.  My blog turned more from being a personal look inside my classroom and my style of teaching into a scheduled posts of top ten lists or article type writing of what I thought was popular or what people wanted to know about.  Honestly, that is fine, but for me that made me not want to blog.  Feelings of being not good enough to compete with other celebrity teacher/bloggers creeped into my mind and made blogging a job to me and not a fun hobby that I can use to share my passion for teaching.
This year I have several resolutions and big changes are coming for me (more on those another time), but for now, my resolution to you my reader, is to get back to the basics and to show you what it is like to be a special educator and share an insiders look into my classroom.  I will leave you with this...this year my word is focus.  My focus, like many of yours gets pulled in so many directions, my family, friends, work, school kids, church, Facebook, blog, social media can all be important in some way, but when I spend too much time on any one thing, it pulls me away from someone or something else that could be a blessing in my life.  I am putting my focus on things that are important to me and what I believe to be eternally significant, so there are somethings I have had to get rid of in my life and other things I have had to commit to doing better at.  Blogging is one thing that I wanted to focus on, because it means a lot to me to help, inspire and encourage other special educators.  This quote helps me to put things in perspective:

Right now, I am taking another shot!  Friends and readers, I hope this time of year inspires you to take another shot, too!
~Kim