Teaching Log: Rejuvenation

Don't get me wrong. I'm still eager for vacation.

But being done with anecdotals is still getting me excited, not just about my break, but about teaching.

This year I've done some things really really well that I specifically wanted to improve:

-Productive and Interesting Centers for kids to work in when their reading groups are not meeting
-Better reading groups
-Consistently having two separate math groups meet so that more kids' individual needs are being addressed
-Writing newspaper-like newsletters instead of one long dry page

I owe a lot of this to my assistant, but also to some clear goal setting, and the focus that comes with working absolutely full-time with two classes.

I'm already getting ideas for next year. I want to make a checklist of some of the reading and writing skills I sometimes overlook from contractions to "voice", and I want to have a Thursday reflection time. Every Thursday the kids would write a little... 1 sentence at the beginnning of the year... a paragraph by the end... about what they learned or did at school that week. And every time there would be a specific mini-lesson focus that I could then check off my list.

I hope this is manageable rather than overambitious. I think it would keep me on track more with teaching certain ideas, but I tend to get bored by weekly or daily routines, and prefer new opportunities most of the time. I'd have to find a way to make this balance both.

What I still need a lot MORE improvement on...

-Assessment, especially in reading groups
-Self-assessment for kids, like with rubrics
-Asking better questions

In the meantime, I don't mind if my vacation comes.