The Joy of Summer
Summer is here and that means lots of free time, or not? The heat, the showers, and the joy of getting up without having to rush through my mornings are only a few of my summer joys. Summer also brings back time to engage in activities and projects that are postponed during the busy days of the school year. While my list of “want to do” things is long, I am happy to accomplish at least one or two things every day. There is another list that I have and it is my “need to do” list.
Establishing Routines
I need to establish habits that won’t be dropped once the busy work days start again. I think of myself as an organized person and it bothers me that I break my summer routines just because work takes over. One should not allow that to happen, but year after year, I have allowed it. I really hope that this habit-forming challenge will help me stick to those routines that bring me joy at home. Therefore, at the top of my “need-to-do list” is to establish those habits that will remain regardless of my busy schedule once summer is gone.
Having time for my family, exercise, daily writing, and learning must remain intact without regard to the time of the year. Wish me luck as I make good use of my summer days to establish lasting routines. I am trying to include at least 20 minutes of dedicated practice to a couple of activities in this 30-day routine establishment challenge. One of the skills I wish to practice is, once again, coding. I am teaching online courses and the platform we use is Canvas. I like Canvas, but found the editor to limit the way I want my course pages to look. Fortunately, Canvas provides the option to use the HTML editor and that is where my coding skills come in handy. Granted, I have had to go back and review HTML5 and CSS, but it is coming back and I am excited at the results I am seeing on my course pages. My interest in practicing coding has definitely been renewed and refreshed so I will be going back to this practice.
Practicing Old yet New Skills
This week, I have revamped my course pages to include images that float either left or right, incorporating colored text boxes and tables that have a different look and feel to those that one can include through the regular Canvas editor. I believe students deserve a friendlier learning environment and that is what I am trying to accomplish. Plain text, over a long white page, is difficult to read, retain, and follow so the use of a variety of fonts, tables, images, and layouts are both welcomed and needed. While I have a long way to go and a lot to practice and learn, I am excited to commit to 20 minutes of focused coding practice on a daily basis. I know I will practice longer than those 20 minutes, but committing to at least that much makes me feel like I have a plan that I can stick to.