Goals: the last semester

I realize it's in right now, but my buzzword for this last semester is "sustainability." For the past year and a half, I've struggled to find the appropriate balance in how I prepare for school. Sometimes I'm planning each day as it comes; the lessons I produce are usually dry, heavy on the individual practice and disjointed with respect to each other. This isn't a sustainable pattern, because I'm always frantic the night before and then bored stiff when I have to teach them. More often, at this point, I'm over-planning each day, or spending too much time and energy on high-concept sets and activities that require a lot more of me, both in terms of preparation and presentation in the classroom. I'm rarely bored when I'm teaching one of these lessons, but that's because I'm doing the bulk of the work. I'm not asking much of my students, certainly not as much as when I'm burying them in independent practice, and I worry that they're not learning as much. To be honest, my classroom management still isn't what it should be, and for all that an energizing set can do, it's a detriment if it gets the kids too riled up to focus. So my goal is to maintain a sustainable work ethic with respect to planning, to make sure that I'm neither bored nor exhausted.

What's sustainable for me might also prove more sustainable for my kids too. Either unsustainable style of planning that I described is less interesting--both for me and my students--than one that organizes work around longer-term projects. I'm hoping the projects I plan will be more memorable as well.