New Year Resolutions and Novel Studies

One of my favorite things about teaching Language Arts is all of the novels that we get to read in my classroom. I really didn't do a great job of this during my first year because the choices I had to choose from were not the best. One of the things that I really worked on this past year was finding quality novels to read with my students as well as growing my collection of novel sets of 6 for book clubs. Right now I am planning on reading The Wednesday Wars and The Giver with my Pre-AP class. I just finished TWW and loved, loved, loved it! I think my kids, especially, the boys will enjoy it too! As for my regular classes I am not quite sure what I want to read with them yet. Even though it is a little easy, I think I am going to start the school year by reading The Best School Year Ever because my kids really liked that a lot last year. I think it is the perfect book to get their feet with and it gives them a positive experience with their first novel as a middle schooler. If you teach middle school, or upper elementary, what are your favorite novels to read as a whole class? What are some novels that you have used for lit circles or book clubs? 

I am also linking up with Amanda Madden for her Back to School Resolutions linky party. Make sure you go and link up over at her blog if you choose to participate. 

One. I need to manage my time after school better. Sometimes last year I would be up there until 6 or 7p.m. This school year my goal is to be gone no later than 5:15p.m. each day. I also really want to limit the amount of work that I take home with me to complete if I can. I think part of the problem is that I am a single 20 something and do not have a family or husband at home so it makes it easy to take things home with me.

Two.Stay organized. Last year I was very organized when the school year began, but it never lasted. I had to do some serious reorganizing at the semester. I think I will do a better job of it this year because I simply know what to expect. I am hoping that I can do a better job of teaching my students procedures about keeping their things organized too in the room which I think will help me stay organized at the same time.

Three.Stay positive. Last year I think I did a good job of this the first semester, but I let others get to me during the second semester. I need to do my part with this too by bringing a positive attitude to my classroom each day and realizing that every day cannot be perfect.There were some changes made to my team as a whole for this upcoming year and I think that the freshness of some new faces will help with this too.

Four. Share what I am doing in my classroom on a weekly basis on my blog. I love seeing what you all are doing in your classroom, so I want to share more of what I am doing too. I am thinking that each Sunday I am going to reflect on what I did during the previous week and hope to share pictures of that too.

On a side note, my campus found out yesterday that we met AYP!!! I could not be more excited since we had not met it in the previous year.