Happy New Year!

I've been reading about One Little Word on Two Writing Teachers. I like the idea of adopting one word to guide you through the coming year. This is so much better than New Year's Resolutions which I invariably don't keep. The word that immediately jumped out at me was "reflect", and while I have thought of other words, "reflect" keeps coming back. I just looked through some notes I had in the back of my notebook and there it was again - a reminder to myself to reflect more in writing. Reflection is so important for everyone, but I think especially for teachers. We need to somehow build in more time to reflect on the successes and needs of our students, how our lessons went, and the words we chose to deliver those lessons. Reflection helps you move forward in the right direction. That is one reason we included reflection as part of our Your Turn lessons. So 2012 will be my year to reflect, and hopefully I'll be moving in the right direction.