This summer marks the end of my 3rd year as an administrator. This year has definitely been a crazy one; a roller-coaster of emotions and experiences. Like most educators, I use summer as a time to reflect, regroup and recharge.
I am looking forward to the slower, less hectic pace of the work day and the ability to ditch the tie and wear sneakers to work (most days, at least). However, the part of summer that I look forward to the most, is the opportunity to dedicate more time to my professional learning. As I covered in my last blog post, as much as I value blogging, social media and other professional learning opportunities, it can be very difficult to dedicate the time that such ventures truly deserve during the heart of the school year.
Summer has always served as a time to "sharpen my saw" with new skills and ideas and to "whet my appetite" with inspiration and examples of excellence from my PLN.
That being said, like any good learner, I always like to create a list of goals for myself during the summer:
1.) Finish Reading Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess (Carried over from last year, Sorry @burgessdave)
- I started reading the book last summer as part of a book study through Twitter, but only made it through about 1/2
2.) Finish Reading Mindset by Carol Dweck
- I began reading this book in preparation of hearing Carol speak at the annual NASSP conference this past March. However, after I accepted my new position at my current elementary school, I was unable to attend the conference and never got the opportunity to finish reading.
3.) Attend EdCamp Leadership at University of Penn in August
- I'm defnitely an EdCamp junkie and love that this year's EdCamp Leadership is in my hometown. Such a great expereince last year!!
4.) Learn everything I can about Aurasma and Augmented Reality
- Learned about this app at EdCamp Philly this May and have fallen head over heels for it. I hope that I can help share that passion for its possibilities with my staff and get some of them to take a leap of faith with it in their classrooms. Lead by example, right :)
So there it is. Four goals sandwiched around a few long weekend getaways and the normal summer work that needs to be done for August/September.
I hope your summer lists are meaningful and manageable.
Be well.
Joe
