"Be It Resolved..."

To my knowledge, the holiday of the new year is the only one celebrated the world over.  According to historians, making resolutions for the new year dates back to the Babylonians.  And as Borgna Brunner writes, “people all over the world have been breaking them ever since.”

Surely, when we set out to “resolve” to make a change, we do so honestly and with intent.  But why is it so hard to follow through?  I think it is because we are making them during a time of rest, when we have time to think and reflect, but then very quickly the hustle and bustle of life takes over, and we go back into survival mode.

This mimics the life of a teacher – when time is given for thought and reflection, many great ideas and practices are developed.  However, without time down the road to continue to think and reflect, the busyness of the school day takes over and many times subsumes those great ideas before they can take root and grow.  No person ever resolves to be a “bad” teacher, but many teachers I know feel like they don’t have time to be the best teacher they believe they can be.

The need to honor the processes of creativity and growth is evident, but how do we do it?  One way is to admit the need to slow down, to temporarily put the brakes on a program or policy in order to allow people time to catch their breath and process the information.  Another way is to repurpose the time we have together, by delayed starts, common planning periods, different schedules, etc.  Any way in which we can give teachers time to think and process benefits our kids.

Sometimes our admirable and lofty resolutions in education are so big and shiny, we forget that they need constant attention. If you’ve made a resolution for 2014, try taking it in digestible bites.  Where do you want to be in a week?  A month? Six months?  Carve out time each week – even just 15 minutes -- to think about it, adjust it, throw it out and start anew, or keep doing what you’re doing. 

Happy New Year,

-          J. Walton