Making the Grade, Goals & Expectations & Yoda

Wow, has it really been months since I've updated my teaching blog? Goodness gracious me. I guess I didn't realize it because I'm constantly writing posts in my head as I'm zipping down the road. It's just that I forget to actually post them.

Part of my problem is that by the time I actually sit down in front of my computer, my moment of brilliance has long since passed (of course, that assumes it was there to begin with), and I can't quite seem to formulate what in the Sam Hill I wanted to blather about. 

Now I am reduced to grasping at snippets of memories of all the things I wanted to say.  I wanted to give you three snippets, but I could only remember two…

Snippet #1… Making the Grade… I had to muster up some "Oh my! Oh dear! Oh, so sorry!" for by BFF Jennifer who told me she was up at school late Friday night trying to get grades done. They were due on Monday, and she didn't want to devote her entire weekend grading, grading, grading. Obviously, people who think teacher's get paid enough (people like Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst) don't know teachers and don't understand the time and workflow that goes into the job. (Another reason why I am thoroughly happy to be retired.) I think if you averaged all the time when I was a teacher grading, planning, making deadlines, weekend work etc. I'm fairly certain I made less than minimum wage. Oh, yeah, but I had summers off. Oh wait, I forgot, this is a no whining blog, darn it.

Snippet #2… Goals & Expectations… We expect our students to have goals, and clearly we have expectations for them. Now that I've launched my (ad)venture in real estate, I, too, am supposed to have goals, and my office manager has expectations. So I zipped out to the nearest office supply store with my $10 off coupon and purchased two white boards, an assortment of dry erase markers and some nifty bulletin board squares--All so I could list my goals.

With only five months left to achieve my goals, my whiteboard screamed at me mocking me in black, red, blue & green ink all my shortcomings. Now I can see clearly why so many of our kiddos either fail to make goals or settle for mediocre ones. It's easier to wipe the board clean and come up with an easier, more do-able list. After all, isn't that the point of dry erase markers? To make life easier and allow more do-overs.

But I'm not that girl. 

And life isn't easy.

And you often don't get do-overs.

I had to give myself my own YMCA Yoda speech: "Do, or do not. There is no try."