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Welcome to Day 3 of the 5 Days to a Better School Year Challenge!
Every day this week I’m asking you to reflect on something specific from last school year that annoyed/bothered you and help you take action to change it for this upcoming school year.
Classroom behaviors and routines don’t change without being intentional about it – being intentional now can make next year so much better!
If you missed the previous challenges, check out the Day 1 Challenge and the Day 2 Challenge.
Today's Challenge
Today, we are going to reflect on some teaching responsibility this past year that bugged you all year long because you knew you could do a better job, and then we will take steps to improve this for next year.
Follow the steps below. Use this Day 3 Challenge Printable Worksheet to help you write out a plan for today's challenge.
1. Think of something this past year that regularly made you feel disappointed in yourself.
Not a classroom routine or a student behavior, but one of your teacher responsibilities that you never seemed to have time for.
For example: grading papers, talking to parents, paperwork, integrating technology, developing relationships with students, building a positive classroom community, using higher level thinking questions, etc.
2. Next, spend some time reflecting on why this particular teaching responsibility bothered you so much.
Did it weigh you down? Why did you feel so disappointed or frustrated with yourself?
Whenever you come up with a plan for this behavior, make sure it addresses the root of what bothered you.
3. Now, spend a little time researching how other teachers have managed their time and improved this aspect of teaching.
Think about what kept you from doing a better job this past year and come up with solutions to that problem.
I’ve listed some links to articles that could help you think about routines you could set in place to help solve this problem from teachers that have found different ways to solve these problems.
- Grading
- Building a Positive Classroom Community
- Building Relationships with Students
- Parent Communication
- Yelling at Students
- Integrating Technology
- Differentiating
You can also do a quick Google Search or a search on Pinterest to see how other teachers have addressed the behavior that is bothering you. Chances are, you aren’t the only one dealing with it!
4. Finally, come up with a plan.
Ideally, you will write down what steps you need to take to in order to try this out. (You can use this Day 3 Challenge Printable Worksheet to help.) Simple and sustainable is usually best. How will you manage your time better this upcoming year? What can you do now so that you save time later? Do you need to make any changes to your classroom organization set up?
Addressing a responsibility that has been weighing you down can make next school year so much better!
Comments 2
My small reading group mini lessons were good, but not great. This year, I would like to match my student’s individual reading goals and form small, flexible reading meetings to help them accomplish their goals. We will make our reading goals visible and hold students accountable each week for updating and monitoring their own progress. This will be part of their reflective reading goal grade. Also, this will help me with another goal to differentiate and be purposeful with assignments for students, so that we can meet the needs of our reading and writing standards.
My action plan will be to have reading and writing portfolios online for students to track their own independent goals that are visible to themselves, myself and their parents. This digital portfolio will be interactive and a part of their daily reading routine. Assigning students a special small group conference / meeting date, will help keep all of us accountable. I conference weekly with each student one – on – one to talk with them about their reading progress, too.
Using technology in the classroom is great for student engagement. We just got our smart projector. We had some training but even then it was too short. They were still trying to get it to work and learning themselves. My students and I were able to practice some. It had several glitches so sometimes it would freeze. I would have to get technology personnel to come and fix it. I actually had problems the day I had my teacher evaluation done. It was so frustrating but I kept on going. It’s frustrating when you’ve got technology that just for doesn’t work.
The plan this year is to hopefully attend more technology professional development and be able to create lesson that will benefit student engagement.