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.