goals

Goals… I have a lot of them.  Some are big, others small.  I have housework goals, teaching goals, personal goals,marriage goals, career goals, and the list goes on.  I am extremely goal-oriented.  I always have been, and I think I always will be.  I am coming to realize though, thatbeing goal-oriented and actually following through with my goals are twoentirely different things.  Why ithas taken me 26 years to realize this is beyond me. 

I’ve been struggling a lot with this concept lately atwork.  I feel like as a teacher Ialways need to be improving.  If Iexpect my students to make goals and follow through with them, shouldn’t I bean example?  My top teaching goalright now is to give feedback in a timely fashion.  It’s tough to realize that yourself as a teacher would have drivenyourself as a student C-razy… with a capital “C.”  I have all the best intentions in the world of grading andpassing back my students’ work. But all of the best intentions in the world mean nothing if there isn’tsomething to show for it.  Mystudents – whether they like it or not – are embarking on a new goal offinishing their homework assignments. And I am determined to succeed at my new goal of giving them feedback ina timely manner.    

Whether he knows it or not, my husband David sort of sparked this whole thought process on goals.  On Wednesday morning this past week, he walked into the kitchen as I was getting ready to leave for work and said as kindly as possible, "Honey, I've got a goal for you this week."  I asked him what that might be, and he responded with, "Put your clothes away."  

David is the laundry master in our home.  Actually... he's the trash master, the recycling master, the mowing master and the dish-putter-upper extraordinaire.  I can't say it enough:  our house would not be a home without all David does for us.  He is the biggest blessing in this area of life.  I knew that my laundry situation must really be getting under his skin for him to say something about it.  I let him know that it had been driving me a little nutty also, and promised to take care of it this week.  That's when I started realizing that all the goal-setting in the world doesn't mean a thing if I don't actually work toward completing them.

Sometimes I put so much on my to-do list... I fill my plate to it's fullest.   I am overwhelmed and don't know where to start.  That's how I sometimes feel about grading papers.  Or about laundry.  Or about cleaning out a room so that my friends don't nominate me to be on Hoarding:  Buried Alive.  It's taken the past couple of weeks - 26 years in the making - to realize that I have to start somewhere.  Completing goals actually requires action.  Imagine that.

Today's goal...

...completed.  And Ham is a happy camper too.

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This past week had a very special date.  10.11.12... a day that counts.  I am a super-nerdy math teacher and shared this fun fact with my students.  They think I am weird.  But in honor of consecutive number day, I thought I'd share a little from this past week at school.