I always find the end of the quarter bittersweet. It's an accomplishment (I survived!), a mountain of last-minute work, and a panic of what I have left to cover this year.
With each class, I make a couple of goals to work on during the next quarter. One of my classes is going to work on minimizing talking and writing without being told at the beginning of class. Two of my classes are going to work on their "professional personas": the way they should act and interact in an academic and professional environment. Another class is going to work on coming out of their shells and participating in small group work. I find these goals satisfying to make, but they're also a bit overwhelming in terms of solutions.
And my goals? Improve my patience, stick to my fitness plan (so far, so good!), let minor annoyances slide and improve my time management. I think the toughest one for me is to let minor annoyances slide. It's easy to be sidetracked and direct emotion toward things that don't really matter. Interactions with peers, unfair remarks by classmates, nagging from students, miscommunications, someone not reloading paper in the printer (after printing 100 copies of something!!)--I can waste a lot of time fuming over these petty complaints. In reality? None of these matter, and most are the result of general stress on my part. Rationally, I realize that getting rid of negative emotions about small complaints will also improve my time management (and patience-- Two for the price of one!). I look forward to tackling this goal. :)
What about blog readers? Anyone have some goals for this next part of the school year?
