Resolutions

So I'm not normally one to make resolutions....frankly they seem a little silly to me. Not to say that we don't all have something--or more than one thing!-- to work on to better ourselves, but it just seems to me that any promise you make to yourself on New Year's is probably something that you either already should be working on, or should work on continuously. So, instead, I have a list of things I'd like to do and the kind of person I'd like to be in my life and that is my version of a New Year's resolution. Some people think this is hokey, others think it's a cop out, but it's (as a fifth grader said to me recently) the way I roll.

Well, this year, I decided to make a New Year's resolution. Ready for it?

I decided that I'm going to leave school earlier.

Can you hear the seas boiling and feel the wind from the pigs that are flying by?

This truly is momentous for me. OK, OK, keep in mind that when I say earlier, I mean 5:00 at the latest. 5:30 on days that I have a meeting that goes until 5. (I know, I know, it is sad that 5:00 is earlier for me, but hey, I'm working on it, aren't I?!? That should count for something!) So far, five days into our new year, everything seems to be conspiring against my New Year's resolution. I could launch into my litany of how busy a teacher's life is, and how much work it is to keep 23 third graders occupied and thanks to NCLB we have more and more pressure put on tests....but that would just bore you. Suffice it to say, I picked a poor time to walk away from the piles of work that never seem to go away. But, since it is a resolution, and since we are only five school days into our new year, I haven't given up hope yet.....