Resolutions for 2014 - A looking-forward linky!

Who can believe that it's the last day of 2013?  Time sure does fly when you're having fun!  I really enjoyed joining in with the 13 in 13 linky and looking back on the past year - it's amazing that so many small moments that make life so fulfilling are easily forgotten so it was great to reflect and remember.  To be honest, I'm not really good with reflection or goal setting... so to help with the latter I'm linking up with A Peach for the Teach to look forward and make some 2014 resolutions.

Personal: Before I moved away at the end of 2011 I got rid of all of my furniture - so this year I had to start over again setting up my little apartment pretty much from scratch.  I need a few more pieces of furniture - a day bed for the spare room, an armchair and coffee table for the office/random space - and then I will be happy. Because it's just me here I can take my time finding things that I'm happy with and spreading the expense out over time, but I'd really like to get things sorted asap!

Professional: Keeping on top of checklists, spreadsheets, recording sheets etc. is the task I struggle with the most at school.  Ask me what each of my kids can and can't do and I can tell you very specifically... but ask me to show you the evidence on paper and it takes me a while to produce the relevant data.  I know, I know... that makes me a terrible teacher!!!  I do try, I promise.  I'm really hoping to get on top of the paper trail before my kidlets start the new school year - I'l let you know how I go!

Classroom:  I know that most of you probably try to get the next week's resources set up before you leave on a Friday, but I plan specifics for the week on a Sunday so that's not possible for me.  I've tried in the past to plan ahead more, but since I have the time (no kids at home!) the Sunday session works the best for me.  It is such a pain, though, going into school Monday morning to set up for the week and having to put away the games/activities from the previous week's groups.  I don't mind staying late on a Friday afternoon because I feel happy knowing that when I come in early on a Monday morning I'll have a blank canvas to work with.  I'd really like to keep that habit going in 2014.

Blog/TpT: Oh, so many goals I could have here!  Probably the most relevant is to make sure that I take  photos of the things that I blog about in action!  Games and resources are so much easier to understand when you can see a picture of the kidlets using them.  I have a lovely school Mummy who this year gave me permission to publish photos of her twins (she has a blog too, so they are internet superstars!), and I have another of her children in the coming year (she has 5 kids, and AB will be the 4th of them that I've taught in Prep!) so I have no excuses for not getting great photos.  Trouble is, there's so many important things to be doing in the classroom that photos take a back seat (as they should).  Perhaps I'll make sure to leave the camera in a central position and ask my wonderful teacher aides to help me capture more learning moments.

Just for fun: I'd love to do some more travelling soon.  Finances will probably limit me to Australia/New Zealand, but that's just fine with me.  I'd love to take Chris and drive the Great Ocean Road, spend a few days in a log cabin in Tasmania, or head up to the Great Barrier Reef and spend some time in the sun.  :)

Hopefully I can plod along towards keeping these resolutions as 2014 goes on! Link up and share yours, maybe we can check in with each other and keep ourselves on track.

Happy New Year everyone! 

Lauren