The Big Picture Backwards

Everywhere in New York is sticky. Leaves drip and even the outdoor air smells thick and warm. Today the weather changed as fast as my life did: Calm and partly cloudy to torrential rain and back, Phoenix to New York without going back. So far I have felt moments of loneliness when walking through my new home, missing pieces of me, like my nose ring and my company. I felt the real weight of the task before me and I had yet to meet someone to face it with. However, as the night went on the awkwardness eased and I realized that in this place I may be surrounded with some of the most fabulous people to date. And I still haven't even seen the skyline. 

This week, I had a thought when completing (finally) the required work that I have previously admitted to procrastinating. We were asked to read about the concept of purposeful planning, planning with an end in sight, planning that starts with a goal and ends with the first step. We are asked to understand the importance of having a direction, a destination, that hangs over every decision we make, every moment in the classroom. If we begin with the end, we will see how far we must go and what needs to be done to get there. It is planning backwards to move forward. They call it standards-based lesson planning as opposed to activity-based lesson planning. I began to wonder if this concept can be applied to life; when faced with a blank slate, decide first where you would like to arrive, what you will do when you get there, and who will be holding your hand, and then work backwards from there. Significant gains in the classroom can be made when an ambitious, measurable goal is initially established and then the steps necessary to reach it are analyzed and followed. And so, I will start at my destination: I want to be the best damn teacher this place has ever seen. I want every one of my students to be ready for the next grade level at the end of the year. I want them to go to college, and I want them to move on to tell the world how hard it was for them to get there.