December Reflection Part I

Well, its been a very busy year. A phrase that immediately comes to mind is: Be careful what you wish for! Last year I was so devastated that I saw my students only once a week and their musical exposure was so reduced. This year, I get to see my students twice a week again but for 50 minutes a session rather than 45minutes! Hooray! This is a good thing...

If you're sensing a "but..." you are right. While I am so blessed to be able so see more of my students, the added 5 minutes of instruction in every class every day has resulted in 30 minutes less of prep time each day. That's 350 minutes of prep time a week that I have been accustomed to for 14 of my previous years of teaching that I suddenly don't have. In addition to this loss of time during the teaching day, I am also trying not to stay at school until 5:30 or 6pm (trying to be a present mom) so I don't have the luxury of after school prep time I used to indulge in.

Let's just say it's been an adjustment.

At a teaching conference in my early years, I heard a presenter say, "As teachers, your plates will be very full. If something falls off the plate and it was important, you will hear about it. But if it falls off the plate and it wasn't...that's one less thing to worry about." Well, obviously, blogging has fallen off the plate. In fact, much of my technology integration has suffered.

But, there's another "but..." because tomorrow is my first day of a 2 day TIES conference. Not only am I attending but I am also presenting a poster session. In preparing for said session (thank goodness for the workload relief day!), I have been forced stop flailing about in the water, lift my focus from the immediate, and look again at a bigger picture--specifically, my technology plans as plotted out in the Tech Cohort last year. I'm really getting excited about some things specifically geared towards music teachers tomorrow and Tuesday and am hopeful that this immersion in tech will spill over into my everyday teaching.