HOW????????

This school year marks my 5th year as a math teacher, with 4 of those years in the same middle school. As an aspiring administrator, I viewed classroom teaching a bit differently entering this
school year this past August. I desired to take my teaching to a new and higher plateau. I wanted to take more risks in the areas of technology integration, hands on learning, increased student engagement, and parental awareness of what’s happening in my classroom.

The big word in my mind was, how. This word encompassed a lot to me since the following concerns, or questions, were evident:

• With a wife, one daughter in 1st Grade, the other in Kindergarten, and a 8 month old son, how can I increase what I am doing for my students without neglecting my devotion and duty to them?
• With the completion of my Masters in Educational Leadership on the horizon in March, how can I maintain my 4.0 average?
• With a new principal in my building, how am I going to fit into her vision?
• With only 2 45-minute planning periods each day, and one of them being taken everyday for some type of meeting with a team or department, how am I going to find time and use that time effectively to plan lessons and create smart presentations to go with those lessons?
• How am I going to continue to coach football at my school?

These questions brought me continuous headaches during the summer months. In my second ever blog post, I will explore and reflect on how I attempted to attack each one of those questions.