Thought I would take a moment to just reflect on where the
heck I have been with my personal blog? Here I am talking to teachers and
administrators about the importance of blogging and I just realized that I have
not posted a blog since July in my Fishing For EdTech blog. Now in my defense,
I have been working on other blogs for my job. Look at me, I sound like a
student coming up with excuses…. but…. but…. but….

As a teacher, administrator, leader, call it what you will,
I am a believer of setting goals. In order to be effective at what you are
trying to accomplish you need to set goals before you start. You need to
revisit your goals often, make adjustments, or just make sure you are on the
right path to completing them.

A good friend/boss said to me once, Carlos you need to draw
a timeline. Where are you now, and where do you want to be. I then asked myself
what about everything in between, because there will be many steps in between
that will help me get where I need to be, and he said absolutely. Those in-between
steps might be more important than your final steps. He showed me his timeline
and his goals. I was impressed. As we started to look at my time line, he
showed me where I have been the last 5 years and did not realized that I was
not in step 1 but in step 3 or 4. I preach and preach reflection with teachers, and administrators. What worked well for you today, what worked well for you last week, but I never reflected on my life. Now, by no means am I 80 years old and want to reflect on my life then, but as we experience life, it’s important to sit back and reflect on those goals, accomplishments, or life changing experiences. I used to go into a classroom on a daily basis and ask myself what is my goal for today. What is my learning goal? What do the students need to leave with as soon as they walk out of my classroom?

My goal now is to not be late to any meetings (which I have
yet to be late), make sure I get everything I need to do on my never ending to
do list, work on major district initiatives and projects, and basically
motivate and inspire as many teachers as I possibly can.  I might do inspire via – blog, via – training
or even just a basic phone call – who knows, but if I speak with you and you
need something I make sure that they know it will get done.

On a side tantrum – Goals don’t come easy. You hit lots of
issues, problems, and hurdles along the way. There is a phenomenal former
principal that I work with now, and she has this philosophy that she used in
her school. She always said: Do not come to me with a problem, unless you have
3 solutions. – I love this. This is how she would be able to help others
accomplish their goals and task, whether they were major or minor and still
allow her to be productive and tackle her own issues.

Goals: According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary a goal is
the end toward which effort is directed.

Well, I can’t think of a better time to set up a goal. Here is
my weekly goal. I will complete a daily blog every day for the rest of this
month.  Stay tuned. Should be fun.

Images :

Goal picture:  http://smallbusiness.uprinting.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/how-to-achieve-your-goals-02.jpg

To do list picture: http://blog.jbiancamarketing.com/the-abcs-of-goal-setting

Merriam-Webster picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merriam-Webster