Professional Goals

I'm almost finished. The end is near. Now is the time to look to the future, to see what can be done more so than hope. I thank my colleagues for tolerating me, and supporting me with cogent advice. Considering their thoughts, and reflecting on my own, I have arrived at four professional goals for the coming year.

1. Become a grammar teacher - I want to teach grammar more systematically and comprehensively than I have this year; I think it may be time to review my TEFL notes.
2. Scaffold thinking skills - rather than force students to take the leap from knowledge to analysis in Bloom's taxonomy, I need to scaffold - systematically, again - these thinking skills into my curriculum. Just as my phonics was taught in a highly-organized, incremental manner, thinking too should be presented this way so that all students, not just the elites, will benefit from lessons that engage critical and creative thought.
3. Become a writing teacher - Not only do I desire to see students expand their cognitive capacity, but I also wish to see them express their thoughts in print, of the non-fiction type. This year I've been working on the teaching of vocabulary in the content areas; next year, I will focus on learning non-fiction writing skills and strategies that, I believe, will enable students to express their perspicacious thoughts.
4. Personal mastery over emotions - In my workplace, I wear my emotions on my face when they in fact belong in my pocket with the change. This is one obstruction in my life that most grievously inhibits my professional advancement. I've apologized so much this year; and I will continue to apologize until I do not need to do so anymore; but to get to that point, I'll need to decouple myself from poor past experience, negative fantasies of the worst sort. I need to see the best and the humblest in both my colleagues and me.

I'm not sure where I will be next year to strive to reach these goals; but they're set now, and I'll do my best to prepare for my future, wherever it may lie.