Setting Intentions for the New School Year
I’ve talked before about Mindset Shits for a Happier and Healthier School Year and last year I put together a compendium of World Language Back to School Tips & Resources to help you start your year off on the right foot, but this year I want to talk about the intentions that I’m going to set for this upcoming school year to help me feel grounded, motivated, and at peace as I welcome my new (and returning) students into my classroom for another exciting year of language learning.
"When you set an intention, the universe conspires to make it happen."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think it’s fine to set measurable goals for yourself this year to keep you on track in terms of your professional development, but goal-setting can feel rigid, time-consuming, and anxiety-provoking. Setting an intention for the year seems more gentle, and so this year I am forsaking my yearly goal-setting agenda for a simpler, less stressful practice: I am setting a few intentions for how I want to show up for my students this year, how I want to grow professionally, and how I want to feel this school year, during both the highs and the lows of the school cycle.
I will focus on progress, not perfection—in my students’ learning and my own teaching.
As a recovering perfectionist, I know both the highs and lows of unrealistic expectations, both the ones we place on ourselves as well as the ones we place on our students. For one, perfection is an unattainable ideal, so we should stop aiming for it. It’s like getting excited and planning for a trip that you know you’ll never be able to take. Progress, on the other hand, is measurable, attainable, and rewarding.
This year, I want to highlight my students’ progress by reminding them of what they are capable of doing today, which they were NOT capable of doing yesterday or last week. I want to remind myself that I am already good enough as I am, and that incremental growth compounds over time and leads to staggering results in the long run.
I intend to infuse joy and creativity into my lessons.
I’m reaching a point in my teaching career where I’ve taught some of the same lessons for 5 years (or more!), and I feel myself becoming a bit bored with the way that I’m running things in my classroom. This year, I want to really focus on being mindful and present in both the lesson planning phase as well as the instructional phase.
I’m not scrapping all of my lessons, though. I’m starting small, and I’m being reasonable. I’m setting the intention to try new, exciting, joyful, and/or creative lessons and activities with my students. This will keep me engaged throughout the year, and my students, too! Students respond well to teachers who teach with joy and passion, and I want to infuse those elements—along with freshness and creativity—into as many lessons as I can!
I will maintain healthy boundaries to protect my energy and well-being.
This is critical for us as teachers. It’s so easy to get roped into joining a new committee, starting or sponsoring a new club, signing up for a new professional development series, or taking on an extra duty or class. This year, I’m going to say no as a default response to undertaking new responsibilities, unless I can convince myself that there would be a huge benefit or payout waiting for me if I say yes.
And look, here’s the thing about boundaries: we set boundaries for ourselves, not for other people to follow. But in order for boundary-setting to be effective, we need to know how we will respond when someone crosses a boundary.
I think I’ve shared this before on the blog, but I’m an introvert, and for me, I value my peace above all else! This year, I’m going to be really strict about setting boundaries with my students and enforcing them. For example, when I assign students a practice activity and say that I am not answering questions for 10 minutes while they work, I will not answer questions for those 10 minutes!
In the past, I’ve been really bad about sharing my boundaries with students and then enforcing them. This year, I’d like to work on that so that students understand more clearly what my expectations are, and so that I honor my own needs as a teacher by protecting my energy and peace.
I will continue to find ways to make comprehensible input a focus in my classes.
I’ve read the research and I’ve seen the benefits of using comprehensible input in the French, Spanish, and Italian classroom. I already use CI effectively, but I don’t want to feel like my growth as a comprehensible input-oriented teacher is stagnating.
I’d like to find opportunities this year to try new CI-based activities, and most importantly, provide students with meaningful and engaging CI that is less teacher-centered, because if I’m being honest with you all, CI drains me!
I’d love to attend a workshop or webinar to learn some new strategies that I can incorporate into my World Language classroom. Any recommendations? Let me know!
I hope this blog post has inspired you to set your own intentions for the new school year. When we strive to set intentions, we realize that life is happening for us, not to us. We give ourselves a bit more control in how we think about our job, and how we show up for our students.
If you’re planning on setting intentions this year, what’s one that you’d feel comfortable sharing with me? Comment down below—I’m so curious to hear about your intentions for this new school year!
Happy language teaching,
~ Michael
