OM (Organize Me): Part 1

The past weeks have been trying (obviously... if you've been reading my entires) though I haven't put so many details here. A major component of everything (including the more personal crisis) has been adjusting to my new work situation. The school in which I work is private and has a reputation to guard. As a result, my walls are quite transparent to other teachers (including my assistant/coteacher), the principal and others always in and out, seeing everything I do. In addition, the principal expects us to turn in lesson plans weekly and gives feedback. All of this forces me to see my weaknesses glaring at all times, and makes me feel like a first year teacher.

There is good and bad to that, of course. I feel insecure much of the time, but I also have the opportunity to grow from this. My victorious survivor spirit is, unfortunately, working against me most of the time, causing me to feel resentment at having to work so hard and want to defend myself against it at all costs. But if I can submit my ego to all of the very correct criticism (both positive and negative) that I receive, I just might become a much much better teacher and maybe a better everyday person too. It's not as though any of the criticisms are new to me or unjustified. I just have to improve upon them right away. (It's not easy to know I'm about to publish this, by the way.)

I've decided that the first step towards all of this is to become more organized. If I can minimize the crazy paper flow and know when during the week I'm doing each task etc., I just might have time some times to cook dinner and sweep the floor too in addition to thinking more carefully about how to plan a good guided reading lesson.

The organization will take all different forms, from getting papers in the right place to watching how I protect and nurture my body, mind and spirit, and I want to document it all here because:

1. It will make me more conscious of what I'm doing.
2. I've been blogging pretty obsessively lately and it feels like it's good for me.
3. Others might benefit.
4. I really miss friends right now and feel often like I'm presenting myself to the rest of the world as a complete unfinished product. People are more of a process than a product, changing and shifting all the time, and I feel safe enough to show that growth here on Brainsite.

Some things to watch for in upcoming entries (assuming I stick to the plan):

A plan to document time spent on actual school work. (I won't do this until after Thanksgiving.)
A weekly schedule of what I should do each day.
Menu planning for the week... I hope I hope I hope.
Paper organization.
How I fit in yoga and meditation and what I do with it.

Etc.

Hope you like it.

Incidentally, in the last entry I got a book suggestion. My dad sent me one too called "How To Be Organized In Spite Of Yourself." Both sound great, but one thing I'm going to do is just dive in instead of waiting for a book to arrive, then having to read the book, before I get started on things I think I at least partly already know.