One Little Word–March update

Hi everyone :)

I just realised this morning that I haven’t actually blogged about my March pages for One Little Word and yet they’ve been in my album for a while now.

In March, Ali asked us to TAKE ACTION!  We had to select one thing (little or big) that we could do to move forward with our word. 

I decided that being really organised at school would be a BIG action that I could break down into steps during the month making it much more likely to actually be achievable.  It also helped that I was having a student teacher during this time and quite frankly sometimes two heads are better than one!

I started off with a ‘title page’ for March outlining the prompt and why it was important to me:

It’s funny how the monthly intentions I set in January seem to be fitting perfectly with each prompt because it was a bit ‘unexpected’ that I would have a student teacher right at this time. 

It was also ‘unexpected’ that the FOTS (Friends of the School) group would choose this month to give each teacher a budget to spend on their classroom.  That budget (which HAD to be used in Term 1) meant that I was able to purchase folders, clear pockets, labels, laminating pockets and a variety of other organisational materials… such a cool bonus!

Ali provided us with a cool template to use to work out what we were going to do as well as when and how we would do it.   The template also included a place to ‘document’ your progress as you went.

I had to adjust the template a bit to fit my needs but it worked out brilliantly. 

I broke things down into the school weeks with each week having it’s own focus to concentrate on… first math, then reading and then writing.  The idea was that by the final week everything would be coming together and I’d be working ‘smarter instead of harder’.

As it turned out I actually achieved far more than I had intended.  It definitely did feel manageable most of the time and by the end of March it was all going strong!

Since I’m such a visual person I decided to include a ‘photo evidence’ page in my album as well.

The really awesome thing is that it has been easy (although still quite time consuming) to keep everything going through April.  My weekly planning sheets are all in their folders… my planner is still really quick to do once the planning sheets are finished… and the kids really love the task boards!

This prompt has been fantastic to work on… and the difference it has made in my school life has been incredible.  It’s also been a bit ‘unexpected’ how much impact my One Little Word – CHOICES – has had on my professional life.  It’s been hugely positive thank goodness!

So there’s my update… enjoy the rest of your weekend xx