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Staying Inspired Through the First Month and Beyond

I am feeling inspired after three days of the Add It Up conference in St. Louis. For the last two days, I have even gone home and started working on lessons for next year. How do I fit all of these good ideas in? I just get so excited. But what keeps coming up for me is how do I stay motivated after the first month or so to keep inserting all of the new ideas. How do I remind myself once we are deep into content that problem solving and estimation still deserve time in class? During the summer, I have time to read, go to conferences, and collaborate. I find all the inspiration I need push myself and I have a ton of time to implement it. But once school has started, when all of my responsibilities start piling up, along with papers I have to grade and just being exhausted, I find myself just falling back into my old routines. I start talking too much. Seems counter intuitive. I have to work harder than my students when I am doing all of the talking.

I really appreciate being reminded about the need and benefit for student discourse in the classroom. I am going to focus on that as my goal for the 2018-19 school year. I need to post it in my room, somewhere that everyone can see it. I want my students to be able to see it. I want them to know what I am working on and what I feel is important. This way my students can help keep me accountable too. They can let me know when I am talking too much, which I am sure they will be more than happy to do. 

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