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I stayed in the city this winter break for some much needed relaxation with family and friends. I’m either still catching up on lost sleep from last semester, or I’ve fallen into a terrible habit of sleeping until 9am everyday. Either way, I’m going to be one sad and over caffeinated panda in a few weeks when I’m waking up at 5:30 in the morning for student teaching!

I’ve been doing a little reflecting on how to make my upcoming student teaching experience as not hectic as possible, or at least how I can avoid self-imposed stress. I’m also thinking of how I can make the most of this last semester and a half of grad school. I’ve come up with two goals to start with.

I want to do a better job of planning ahead. I’m really, really looking forward to student teaching, especially in the elementary grades. I can’t wait, and I’ve been stockpiling seed ideas for lesson plans since Thanksgiving.  While I’m excited, I also know that student teaching is going to be a ton of work in addition to classes in the evenings, and I’m going to be tired.

I’ve written a decent amount of blog posts about being organized, managing stress, and projects, etc. I don’t always take my own advice! While my grades didn’t suffer due to my last minute antics, my sleep cycle and social life certainly did. Planning ahead will hopefully help me find a better balance than I had in the fall. This semester, I am going to set a work schedule and stick to it for lesson-planning, homework, student organizations, and ambassador duties.

My second goal is to commit myself to professional development. In addition to the NAEA convention in March that I’ll be going to, I want to make sure I attend at least two art education professional development seminars here in the city. The Art Institute‘s Education Department regularly has opportunities for this, and so does the MCA. I highly recommend checking them out. I would also like to apply to present at a curriculum fair (the MCA has one coming up in March). The end goal for this is to have an awesome resume for job hunting in the spring.

Those are my two goals for now. I’m sure I’ll be adding more as I get into the swing of things! Happy New Year!