I’ve been a bit of a “slacker” in the lead up to Christmas, but now its over I’m back. To be brutally honest (and those that know me would say that at times I am sometimes “too brutal” … oops I mean “too honest” … or do I??) Anyway, in the run up to the festivities I found that I was missing my dad, more than I imagined I would. Everyone says that “firsts” are always tough and it was the first Christmas without him – I still think about him every single day .. but its getting easier.  

Last year I put together a review of 2012 (here) and hopes for 2013 (here) in the spirit of #nurture12/13 but I gave myself an added challenge of trying to keep the character limit to 120 characters for each of the “hopes” and so I find that I want to do the same thing again this year, so lets start with a review of 2013 – including the highs and the lows. I am going to warn you though … I am finding this bit quite daunting – I feel a bit of a failure as I didn’t achieve everything I hoped to do, but that’s life I suppose. So here goes … in no particular order:

1. I never got fit or lost weight! less said about that the better.

2. Blogging and tweeting has been amazing and surpassed my hopes, by a long way – blog is getting over 1000 hits a day and growing! (peaked at 2000). I’ve also set up another twitter account @ReviseJustMaths to tweet GCSE questions.

3. The school at which we work was announced as being the “most improved school in England” (2013) … what an achievement! We were also shortlisted for TES “secondary school of the year”. An amazing day out in London.

4. The lowest point of the year, without a doubt was my dad passing away. Dementia sucks! I am however proud of the promise I made (and kept) to him, to be with him until the end.

5. Working harder than ever to launch JustMaths Top 40 (and an online version too) to keep to a self imposed deadline. It’s a massive achievement that Fize, Seager and I haven’t fallen out and we are constantly learning what makes each other “tick”.

6 JustMaths has grown into something that was only a dream 12 months ago – superb response and gratifying to know that so many schools are using our resources. What a buzz!

7. This years results were excellent too – proved last years were not a fluke.

8. Celebrated 19 years of marriage … 20 years in Feb (I was 21 when we got married, if you’re trying to figure out how old I am!). My husband is amazing … at times I could throttle him, and I am sure that the same is true of him.

9. Saw some old friends, but this needs to be worked on and I need to make more time for my mates. I did meet up with some tweachers in real-life and that was fabulous! #geekclub

10. I didn’t finish my Masters.

11. Allotment this year has been a brilliant outlet for me to relax. Next year will be even better!.

12. Have had loads of resources featured in Guardian articles, was also in their “why I became a teacher” series and have even had a couple of articles published as their “secret teacher” … I’m not telling you which articles were mine though.

13. Not sure if its a high or a low yet, but have become a member our parish council … we’ll see!

That was easier than I thought.