Its a new year, new ideas
Well – summer holidays have come to a close.
I’m more than ready to get back at it. I’ve spent the summer reflecting and rethinking ideas for this new academic year on teaching and leadership. On professional development. On technology and learning. I learned a lot talking to others, (have I mentioned Twitter before?) and reading blogs and articles. And yes I had a vacation somewhere in there as well.
I’m not a huge fan of goal setting, but do reflect a lot. I used to do detailed SMART goals. It was good reflection at the time but I just don’t find that works so well anymore for me. I have however flagged 3 big things I would like to know more of, get better at the first semester.
Creating time
This is not just give more time for the kids to reflect but more time for me and other specialists. creating time. Last year I worked a lot on juggling the many tasks and responsibilities teachers do. Fit that in with a balanced life- giving time to your own family and that’s pretty challenging. I found creating time is the best wa
y. I do this by prioritization my week, my day. Of course you cant schedule in life, but I found that by giving priority to takes and breaking things into chunks, this has helped alot. Ive also questioned ‘why’. Why am I doing this? Is this relevant or important to me? For my IT Coordinator role I use this model: Time Management Matrix
For me, family comes first in the prioritization. I need to get better at this though.
Stepping back
Yes I’m passionate. I like being challenged and trying new things and get excited when I see others learning new things and having fun.
I need to step back. Give space to other learners to explore how they want to learn. Really listen to them. Listen is the key word here. Listening is much more than words.
The Games we Play
Gaming! Education! Yes! Here’s is one that Ive always wanted to explore but haven had the time. Yes, see point 1. gaming experts like @adriancamm,@RobinThailand . This is exciting for me because I know nothing about it. Ive heard of Minecraft and I see the kids playing it and talking about it in school. If you need me to spell it out to you, don’t. Check the kin. You’ll be impressed.
I had a few ‘complaints’ last year of kids playing games in school – at lunch. I thought that was great! We aren’t tapping into this educational shift as educators at our school. Yet. As anything I think by modelling it and getting excited about 
things if contagious. I’m excited about this and I know I’m not alone. Other schools and innovative teachers have already blazed the trial for me to start. Of course there are others.
So that’s it! Ill let you know how it all goes come December.
The Learning Journey 
I think Stephen Covey’s matrix is useful because most of us are guilty of focusing on the urgent and forgetting about the truly important. Relationship building, for example, is really important, but how many of us make adequate time for it – building relationships with students and parents as well as with colleagues; while not of course forgetting about our families!
I certainly agree to use of time management matrix. It really plays a very important role in managing our time properly and to prioritize our work.
About playing games!!! Children should play games. Sometimes I wonder what is it that is very interesting to the children. Why only games? There should be lot of educational games so that they are more interested in learning at school. The educational games can be created by teachers as well, provided time management skills are very important. We can’t have games all the time. I am new to PYP and this is the first time I am reading your blog.
June
Thanks for reading my blog! I agree time management skills of teachers are important to create valuable learning engagements.