Educators have a love-hate relationship with goals. A class goal, a SMART goal, a student growth goal... they all imply both the hopeful optimism of starting anew and the bleak desperation of evaluation data. As we stare down the end of January wondering how to get through unscathed, we often look to a new year's resolution as the pinnacle of being goal oriented and starting fresh. A brief google search confirmed my assumptions that I could find a plethora of shiny educational resolutions to commit to in the new year. Except that eighty percent of resolutions fail. Without a good plan in place, the failure of our hopeful January resolutions leads to a frosty February. It seems to me that we need a dose of reality in the new year instead of another statistically deficient resolution. In education, however, well meaning but vague resolutions often overtake practical realities, and we are left grading and producing paperwork for another glittery goal that fell short. So, as this Janu...