Simple Goal Setting for the New Semester [Episode 216]

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:01]:
Happy New Year. I don’t know about you, but like the new year, new you energy is so real for me. And it’s so funny how seasons work because every holiday season when I’m like sitting under the twinkle lights, like enjoying just the whole ambiance of the holidays in the month of December and just trying to imagine, like what I will be feeling in January, I’m like, I’m gonna keep my decorations up longer this year. I’m gonna like, savor this more. And then something in my brain, literally three, four days, you know, leading up into the new year and definitely on January 1st is like, everything has to go. I want to scrub everything. I want a clean slate. I want fresh notebooks, fresh pencils.

Rebecca Joyner [00:00:46]:
I want big black trash bags. I’ve talked about my big black trash bag energy, BBTB energy. Like, we’re purging. We’re going to Goodwill, we’re going to Once Upon a Child. We’re selling this on Facebook Marketplace. Like, it’s all the things. And if you’re anything like me though, like, this can all become overwhelming though, and over complicated. Maybe your social media feed right now is like mine and it’s full of just all these journals and products and the skylight calendar that all the influencers are trying to get me to drop so much money on and the brick to help with my social media usage and this product and that product and the 10 things that are going to save your life right now and the course you need to take to clean out your house.

Rebecca Joyner [00:01:23]:
And it’s just, it’s so much. And maybe you’re running on that BBTB energy, that New Year, New you energy like I am. And so you start a bunch of things and then don’t quite finish them, or you set so many goals because you’re so excited that then you actually don’t know where to begin and nothing actually gets accomplished. So if any of those feelings resonate with you, I’m so glad you are here listening to this podcast episode because we are going to talk about goal setting for the new year in your new semester today, but in a simplified way. Because doing things simply is the entire point of secondary science, simplified podcast and virtual PD courses, and the entire point of, you know, it’s not rocket science and the it’s not rocket science way. And I just want to make sure that’s something that I’m projecting loud and clear in every space that I inhabit on the Internet. Especially as this week marked 10 full official years of it’s not rocket Science. And this episode marks the start of our fifth year of the Secondary Science Simplified podcast.

Rebecca Joyner [00:02:30]:
I just want to make sure that you hear from me simplicity and that the things that I share with you encourage you and maybe challenge you, but in ways that simplify your life and make it easier and not harder. So that’s how we are going to approach goal setting for the new year and the new semester today. Are you ready? Let’s dive in. This is Secondary Science Simplified, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from It’s Not Rocket Science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, see, serve their students and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend. Let’s get to today’s episode.

Rebecca Joyner [00:03:26]:
So I want to approach goal setting for the new year and the new semester with you today with just asking you two questions. And then we’re going to look at these two questions with two different angles. Okay, so that’s all we’re going to do here. We’re going to Goal Set with only two questions. The first is, what do you want to do more of this year? One thing that helps to answer this question is to look back at last year and think about the things that you did. And you’re like, that was awesome. I want to do more of that. Or look back at last year and be like, man, I didn’t do this at all.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:02]:
And I want to do more of that this upcoming year. So that’s the first question we’re asking ourselves as we set our goals. What do I want to do more of this year? And I want you to consider this question personally and professionally. So personally, I want you to think about, like, the things that bring you joy, the things that recharge your battery, the things that make you feel most like yourself, the things that remind you that you have a life outside of your job, the things that just made your life feel more full and more complete and more like you were living out your purpose. That’s what we want to do more of this year. It could be as simple as, like, reading more fiction books. I had a time in my life where I just felt like I needed to be reading more nonfiction because I just need to always be growing. And while growth is really important and learning is so important, and I love being a Lifelong learner read.

Rebecca Joyner [00:04:58]:
Reading for me is just a way that I have fun and I escape. And so I gave myself permission just to read more fiction. And so now that’s what I do. And I listen to nonfiction, I listen to podcasts and things I want to grow in. And I reserve reading traditional reading with like a library book or a Kindle book as the thing I do just purely for fun and for fiction. And it brings me so much joy. So it can be something as small as that. Like, personally, like, I want to do more reading, it could be something bigger.

Rebecca Joyner [00:05:30]:
Like, I want to do more traveling, or I want to use my days at work to take off so that I can attend more of my own children’s school events. Or, you know, I want to do more things as a family in terms of like hosting and bringing people under our home, because that lights me up, whatever it may be. That’s the question I want you to ask yourself. What do I want to do more of this year? Personally, I think it’s really important, even when we’re goal setting for work, that we goal set personally. And notice that I did that first because that is a priority. You are a whole person. And I feel like one of my passions in this corner of the Internet is just to constantly remind you that teaching is your job and it is not your life. And so I want to start by primarily considering that question personally so that we can remember that you have a life first outside of this job.

Rebecca Joyner [00:06:20]:
And even if you go on to leave the teaching career and do something else, whether it’s a different career or be a stay at home parent or you know, care for another family member who needs help or retire, like you’re going to be this whole person outside of what you do in the classroom. Okay, so let’s answer that question personally first and then do consider it professionally. And I think when you’re answering this question of what do I want to do more of this year professionally, I think you need to think of it through the lens of like, what matters most to you in this job? Is it getting through the standards? Is it your students EOC scores? Maybe it’s making a relational impact on students and having this relationship with students where you feel like you will impact them in a lifelong way. Maybe it’s teaching them certain life skills. Maybe it’s, you’re obsessed with your content and you’re like, what matters most to me is getting through X amount of content. Because I really feel like if they’re gonna do well in chemistry or no chemistry Then these are the things they’re going to know. Or maybe it’s preparing them for what life outside of your class looks like, whether that’s academically or just life wise with skills. I don’t know what the answer to that question is.

Rebecca Joyner [00:07:31]:
And it’s going to be different for everybody. And maybe what matters most to you is different for your different preps. Like maybe for your biology class, what matters most is passing the eoc. Maybe for your chemistry class, it’s something different. So I want you to really, really think through that and I want you to get really specific with it. I think sometimes our answer to that question can be something like, well, I just want to do this job the best I can, or I just want to do it really, really well. Well, what would that look like? What would be a metric? What’s the way that you could quantify that so then you can get really granular about identifying what it is that actually matters most to you under that umbrella of doing things well. Because, like, I want to do everything well.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:12]:
Because excellence and doing things the right way is really important to me. But that’s such like a moving metric and that’s a bar that’s always going to be raised. At least in my personality, I’m never going to achieve a goal and just like rest in it, I’m always going to keep going. So I want you to get really specific here. And if this is something you struggle with, I want you to really consider checking out my Core Values mini course. It’s the first unit in my full Secondary Science Simplified Virtual PD course bundle. But it’s so critical in helping you identify what matters most. If that’s something you struggle with.

Rebecca Joyner [00:08:47]:
And y’ all in that mini course. All of my mini courses have support docs, so they come with videos that you watch in workbooks where you can like listen to the little mini lesson, answer questions, reflect, that kind of thing. They all come with two to five or six support documents. And the one that I added to the Core Values course a few years ago, it’s so special. It’s this job analysis Google spreadsheet. It basically has you walk through every single task you do in your job as a teacher and you kind of rank those items in terms of like, do they suck the energy out of you? Are you neutral about them? Or do they bring you energy, like, bring you joy? And then you also rank them another way with a different code. And in terms of like, this is something that only you could do. This is something that you know you could Train someone else to help you do.

Rebecca Joyner [00:09:35]:
This is something that like anybody could do. And it’s kind of like this algorithm, but you punch in these things, it’s all pre made for you. And it helps you really identify ways to narrow in on kind of like you’re working genius, like your zone of genius. What’s most important for you to do and prioritize in your classroom? And what are things you can let go of entirely or get help with from someone else, or simplify in some other way so that you can really focus on what matters most in the classroom. So that is something that you’re like, wow, I need help with that. I’ll link that in the show notes. Again, I think it’s like $20 on its own, but then it’s also the first unit in the full bundle. So I’ll link both of those options for you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:15]:
So we’re answering this question. What do you want to do more of this year? What do I want to do more of this year? Considering that personally and professionally. You can write a few things down here, jot maybe three or four things. But at the end of this, I’m going to challenge you to really narrow it down to like the one most important thing you’re going to put a star by. And that’s what you’re going to focus on this semester of doing more of that thing. Okay, the second question I want you to ask yourself as we’re goal setting in a simplified way is probably what you guessed. What do you want to do less of this year? So what do I want to do more of is number one. What do I want to do less of is number two.

Rebecca Joyner [00:10:55]:
We’re not just going to add in more things we’re also going to take away because that is just as valuable. Again, we’re going to consider this personally first because you are a whole person and your personhood matters. Okay, think about this. Is there anything in your life that you can outsource so that you can do less of it? And I want you to consider things. I mentioned this before because it kind of goes to that job analysis spreadsheet that I just mentioned that comes with the Core values mini course. But consider things that only you can do versus things that anyone could do. So like for example, you are the only person who can be the life partner to your life partner or like the spouse to the person that you have, you know, or you’re contractually obligated to be married to because you’re married, or you’re the only person who can be the parent to your child. You’re the only one who has that unique role.

Rebecca Joyner [00:11:44]:
Yes, there might be, you know, your spouse or like a step parent or a grandparent. That’s really impactful. But like you are the only one who has this unique role. But there’s other things that anybody can do. Yes, you might be the best grocery shopper and the best at picking out produce, but anybody can shop your groceries for you. Anyone can deliver them to your doorstep so you don’t have to go into Walmart ever again. I’m not exaggerating the $99 I pay a year for Walmart plus so that I never have to pull into a Walmart parking lot and get my Walmart groceries delivered to me. It’s everything it’s worth over and over again.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:17]:
I will always pay for that. Maybe it’s cleaning. Anyone could clean your house and it doesn’t have to look like all the time I’ve talked about before. You know there’s a season of our life where we got once a month cleaning and we only paid for our downstairs. Our downstairs had like our bedroom, it had our bathroom and like another bathroom and then it had like the kitchen and living room and that was it. And that’s what we paid to get clean. The upstairs was like kids bedrooms and like one more bathroom and we never paid for that to get cleaned. But we also trained our dog to never go upstairs and we never had food upstairs.

Rebecca Joyner [00:12:48]:
So it made it so much easier to clean and then it made the cost of the cleaning person so much more reasonable to just do the downstairs once a month. So I want you to consider things that you could outsource and do less of. And I also want you to consider this. Nothing is forever. Like maybe you do less of something in this season, but in a future season you can pick it back up again. So maybe you can’t budget to have a cleaning lady once a month for the rest of your life until you die, but maybe you can do it just during the school year and then in the summers you take off when you’re home and you have a little bit more capacity to do it or thinking about like the gym. I remember there was like a seven year stretch where I did not belong to a gym because finding a way to one, afford a gym and two, go enough to make the cost of a gym worth it and three, just like finding the time in my schedule to get there and with the kids and am I bringing them my not like it just wasn’t reasonable. So something I did less of was like, I got rid of the gym membership and I just did less exercising in a traditional sense.

Rebecca Joyner [00:13:55]:
And I was more creative with, like, I’m going to wear a weighted vest while I walk the dog. And then every quarter of mile I’m going to do 20 squats or I’m going to do these free videos on YouTube or there’s so much free content out there nowadays, I’m just going to do it at home in this season. And now I’m in a season of life where I belong to a CrossFit gym. And I never in a million years, one, thought that I would be a CrossFitter, like, who do I think I am? I can’t believe I think it’s fun. And two, that I’m in a season that I can actually do it after years of not being able to. But that’s because things change. So as you’re answering this question personally, and you’re maybe going to take some things off of your plate, but maybe you take some things out of your budget so you can create space for other things or regain some time in your schedule by, like, not doing the whole hour and a half, like, driving to a gym, going to an hour class, driving home. Like, maybe you’re going to do less of that so you have more space for other things and more margin, because margin makes all the difference.

Rebecca Joyner [00:14:49]:
Okay, margins. That white space on your paper, right? You need white space in your life. Okay, let me say that again. You need white space in your life. If every minute of your day is scheduled out, you’re going to be absolutely drained by your life. So what can you do less of this year personally? And then, of course, we have to look at this professionally also. What can you do less of professionally in your teacher life? Consider the things that drain you and take the most time from you. I call these energy sucks and time sucks.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:21]:
And let’s see if we can remove some of those things. And we’re going to talk over, you know, these next few weeks in January about some ideas for what I mean by that. Okay, we’re going to talk about classroom management in two weeks. We’re going to talk about three things I want you to consider stopping doing. But I don’t want to just tell you those ideas right away because I want you to really consider this on your own. And then I’ll give you some really practical specifics in two weeks. But I really want you to make a list of these. Energy sucks and time sucks and think about what you could do less of in this new semester, you don’t have to commit to all 20, 26, but maybe just this quarter or this semester, try those things.

Rebecca Joyner [00:15:56]:
And I want you to consider maybe you’re still doing some of these things, like grading all the things and grading every piece of a lab and assigning all these extra projects or, you know, allowing them to do the umpteenth amount of test corrections and retest. Because you’re afraid of what happens if you don’t. Like, you’re afraid of what would happen if you stop checking your email 18 times a day. I want you to stop making decisions out of fear. And if you struggle with fear, something that has really helped me, my husband is like the most positive person I know. He always tells me, consider the worst case scenario, practical scenario, like, obviously, worst case scenario, like, is like you and everyone you love dies in some horrible, tragic accident. But like, in this specific scenario, like checking your email 18 times a day, what’s the worst case scenario? If you stop doing that and only check your email once or twice a day, you miss a message about, like a faculty meeting. Okay, well, you’ll probably hear people in the hallway after school walking towards that faculty meeting.

Rebecca Joyner [00:16:52]:
Or if it’s really like an emergency faculty meeting, they’re gonna, the admin are gonna do a lap around the building to make sure everyone gets there. Like, oftentimes when we actually identify what the worst case scenario is, it’s not actually that bad and it’s not actually that big of deal. Oh, you missed the faculty meeting. Okay, well, someone get hit you at the highlights? Because it’s probably not a life or death situation. All right, so that is what I have for you. That’s how I want you to simplify how you’re thinking about goal setting this year. I want everything just to be considered under the lens of the two questions. What do you want to do more of this year? What do you want to do less of? I think it helps if you kind of do like a brain dump on paper.

Rebecca Joyner [00:17:32]:
I love doing things on paper. Y’ all know I’m an old school person. And just make a T chart on a piece of paper right now and write these things out, consider it personally, consider it professionally, and then let’s star, you know, asterisks, circle the most important things. And I really want you to consider, to pick just like one thing of each and write those down and like put it on like a neon green post it note or index card on your desk or on your laptop. So every time you open it you see it and it could be as simple as like more fill in the blank, less fill in the blank and use that as the filter through which you make your decisions this semester. I also think this is such a great activity and exercise to do as a department. Like maybe you take this episode and you forward it to the other science teachers in your department and you say, hey, let’s all listen to this and let’s discuss it at our first department meeting of the the the new semester and let’s all share what we’re going to do more and less of. We’re science teachers here, y’.

Rebecca Joyner [00:18:29]:
All. Why are we so afraid of experimentation and testing out new things? What again, consider worst case scenario, let’s test some things out and see what actually happens. If we just drastically decrease how much we grade or we drastically decrease how many afternoons we’re staying late and working on things, I want you to consider that as you goal plan for the new year. Will you do it? And if you have your mores and your lesses, I would love if you DM’d me on Instagram and told me them it’s not rocket science, it’s who I am. Would love to hear from you. I love to correspond with you there. You can also email me at Rebecca Rocket Science Classroom.com would love to hear from you. I mentioned a few things and I’ll put some other like supplementary podcast episodes and things like that in the show notes for you that might encourage you.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:15]:
And you can find all of that at it’s not rocketscienceclassroom.com Episode 216 and if you have not left a rating and a review today on Apple or a rating and a comment on an episode on Spotify, I would love it if you would do it. Especially because this week we’re celebrating 10 official years of It’s Not Rocket Science. I would love if that is a way that you celebrated with me. So leave a rating or review. It’d be so good to hear from you. All right, teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher, head to itsnotrocketscienceclassroom.com challenge to grab your classroom Reset Challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free.

Rebecca Joyner [00:19:58]:
Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, teacher friend.