Reflections on ANOTHER Year!

ANOTHER year is in the books! I think that this is the end of year 14 for me! Between staying home with my girls and moving, I lose track of the years each year!  It's the end of June and I finally have some time to sit down and write down my thoughts about the past school year. Reflection is always important for me because it helps me to figure out...

 -what to keep doing 

-what to stop doing 

- what to tweak and improve upon for the following year

This year, I know for sure that I want to keep the following...

-Genius Hour

-Personalized Learning opportunities 

-a Balanced Literacy approach to reading and writing

-End of the Year Writing Contest in my classroom

-Student Data Binders

-Goal Setting and Reflection

-Voice and Choice

-Global Read Aloud and World Read Aloud Day

-using Padlet in the classroom for collaboration and communication

-#5BookFriday(I NEED to do a blog post on this!) 

-engaging, hands-on STEM activities

This year, I want to stop the following...

-students talking over each other or not actively listening to each other

-students not being purposeful with their talk in the classroom

-students questioning the need to reflect on their work in the classroom

-students not being appropriately challenged in math when they are 2 or 3 grade levels ahead of our gifted math program

-wasted time

-letting writing time fall to the wayside 

Of course, I have grand ideas for all of the above and a stack of books to help with the above, but these are things that I seem to always struggle with each year.  I make a list about how I can be more intentional in my teaching around these things and how I can seek out help in these areas. If you have any suggestions...shoot them my way! 

This year, I want to tweak and improve upon the following...

-Discovery Quests-how can they be more meaningful and still be an excellent source of public speaking practice?

-Math Workshop-how I can set this up to reach all of my different learners and challenge my students appropriately

-Writing Workshop-how can I include more authentic writing time into my already tight schedule?

-Goal Setting-how can I be more purposeful in following up on SMART goals and making sure that SMART goals are written appropriately?

-Reflection-how can I continue to teach the importance of reflection and how it transfers over to everyday life?

-Authentic Assessment-how can I create more authentic assessments that are purposeful and truly measure learning? 

As you can see, I have a lot to think about and a lot to plan out as I sit by the pool in July and August! I'll keep you posted on what I come up with as it develops! Feel free to shoot me any ideas or suggested resources. 

An Update to Student Goal Setting

One of the most popular posts on my blog has been the post about Goal Setting in the Classroom.  I saw this idea last year on Twitter and knew right away that I wanted to incorporate it into my classroom. I created this chart and we used it for the second half of the year.  I was able to see not only the value of goal setting, but the value of having the goals front and center in the classroom. Students were aware of their goals on a weekly basis and were easily reminded of them when they were up and about in the classroom, in line to leave the classroom, or reminded of their goal by a friend(or a teacher)! 

This year, I have also incorporated an ACADEMIC and a BEHAVIOR goal for the students. The students need to create an academic goal and a behavior goal each Monday. They write an A- for Academic and a B- for Behavior. Pretty straight forward! :-) 

We try to focus on writing the goals in SMART goal format, but as you can see, that is a work in progress. Some weeks we do better than others. We will often sometimes share out our goals during morning meeting or "chat" with a friend about our goals and if we met our goals the previous week. Another way to help make them accountable! 

 We have also started a new reflection sheet for our data binders. We started by taking photos of our post-it notes and putting them in an album on our iPads, but I wanted them to have a reflection component. I found this great form and they fill it out each week. They write in their goals and how they will attempt to reach them. The following Monday, they reflect on if they met their goals and any strategies that helped them meet or not meet their goals. 

Here is a link to the site where I found the great weekly goal setting sheet. The parents have loved the weekly goal setting as well and will often encourage their child to perhaps set a goal in an area in which they are struggling. For example, maybe a child is having trouble remembering to finish their online math homework...they will suggest putting that as an academic goal for the week. Or maybe a child is struggling with bringing home their homework each night...that may be a suggestion. 

After using this system for the last 9 months, I highly recommend it as a way to keep your students accountable and encouraging a growth mindset inside of the classroom. 

Student Data Binders

One of the greatest things that I have ever implemented in my classroom was the creation of  "data binders." I learned about these when I taught in Ohio and worked with some teachers who had implemented data binders in their prior district. They taught me about the purpose of data binders, how they benefit the students, the types of data that are beneficial to collect, and how to set them up correctly. 

Purpose: To drive student performance, to teach students about effective goal setting, to encourage a growth-mindset, and to make students responsible for their own learning and reflective about their work.   Research has documented that setting goals and reflecting on them can improve student learning over time. 

Our data binders demonstrate...

-improvement or growth

-mistakes that we made and have learned from

-our interests

-things that matter to us

-achievements

-what our parents would like to see

-versatility as a student

-a sampling from all subject areas

-favorite books and pieces of writing

-things that we are working on that challenge us

-things that make us proud

-our goals

-our reflections

Teaching students how to set SMART goals is one of the most important pieces of creating a data binder. One reason is that setting SMART goals prepares them for the real world and provides them with 21st century skills. Another reason for teaching SMART goals is that it gives the students a measurable goal that they can assess over time. We discuss the difference between, "I will get better at multiplication this week." and "I will try to score a 95% on my multiplication fact test by Friday." Which one is easier to measure and to tell if it was achieved? 

I prefer to use a view binder for the data binder. Then they can tuck their cover sheet in the plastic view cover.  There are also pockets to hold different papers and extra papers that we may need. We divide our binder into 5 sections: SELF, ELA(Reading/Writing), MATH, CONTENT, and GENIUS HOUR/PROJECTS. Within the SELF section we keep our weekly goal setting statements, interest inventories, learning style inventories, personal mission statements, and other types of papers that pertain to the individual child. 

We also complete academic inventories about reading, writing, and math. We use this data to determine what kind of student we are and we watch for growth over the school year. We reflect on what we see and what we know about ourselves. The Weekly Goal Setting Form is something new that we have started using this year and it is great for getting students to keep track of their goals, reflect on if they are meeting them, and what is helping them or blocking them from meeting their goals on a weekly basis. 

The students love to track their progress for their fact fluency. We practice our multiplication and division facts once a week and graph our progress in colored pencil. This chart really motivates them to go home and study so that their graph goes up each week. I send the data binders home every Friday for the students to review with their parents and share their learning. They are also great to use at student-led conferences. 

Overall, data binders are a great tool for learning and reflective practice. It helps teach organization, goal setting, and reflection.  I highly recommend implementing them in the classroom! Start small and then let them grow as you see the benefits of using them.