#11 The goals I set for myself...

When starting this process I set two goals for myself.  Two things that I personally wanted to learn more about and improve on as a teacher.  The two goals I selected were...

1. Maintaining classroom rules and procedures throughout the year to be consistent
2. Students reflecting and sharing about their learning

I hope you will find that I have learned a lot, made a lot of "to do" lists, and reflected a lot!

#10 Building a strong classroom community

I think one of the most important things that is needed in every great classroom is a strong community.  If a child doesn't feel welcomed, appreciated, valued, and cared for in their classroom, then there will be a struggle for that child to grow academically or socially.  Looking back at the students I just had, I would say we had a strong classroom community.  Of course the last few weeks of school, I felt like I was constantly saying, "Is that a tattle or a report?" or "Is that a big deal or a little deal?" after every little conflict arose in the classroom.  I feel like it happens every year, come the middle of May some of these students have spent so much time together they fight like siblings! That being said, I feel like this years group truly cared for each other, treated each other kindly, and helped one another.  There is nothing that makes a teachers heart happier then when she see's one of her students hugging a student who is crying or saying "its ok you can play with me", or offering to help a student pick up their bin that has spilled all over the floor.  To me my job as a teacher is not only to teach these students academic skills but social skills, and how to be an overall good citizen.  That being said, I will not ever compromise the time I spend building my classroom community.  Such as our daily morning meeting routines, or taking time throughout the week to learn about our character trait for the month, or something as simple as spending five extra minutes diffusing a dispute between students on the playground during recess.  As I begin to plan for next year and think ahead to all the grand plans I have, I want to continue to learn more about how to build an even stronger community.  In the book, Becoming a Reflective Teacher they gave a suggestion of creating a classroom meeting which is specific time in your week or even every other week for 10 minutes where you and students discuss issues that arise in the classroom.  Issues for the discussion can be raised verbally by a student or written and placed in a suggestion box.  I think this would be a great time to focus on our character trait of the month, and to have students to a little role playing or create scenarios around a specific topic or issue.  I am hoping to try this next year, as I think it will be another way to create a strong community in my classroom and maintaining high expectations for my students.

#9 Classroom Pledge/Promise

Every new school year, I have my students help me create rules that they think would be appropriate to follow in our classroom.  I involve them as much s possible, and guide the discussion when needed.  I guide the discussion by creating a tree map, labeling the top categories as how we can be respectful, safe, and responsible.  The students then help me write rules that they think are important under the three categories.  We all promise to follow these rules and each student signs his/her name.  Throughout the school year I refer to the rules, or maybe bring a specific students attention to a rule that they might have broken.  However, looking back I feel like there is more that I can do, more ways to make the rules and expectations clear and important for each new day in our classroom.  I found a few resources where teachers call them class promises, or class pledges and they turn their classroom rules into a chant that they recite daily.  I really liked this idea, and feel like I want to use it next year.  Again, I think I would change this class promise to maybe fit my students needs and maybe create a new one each year as it is different for each class.  However, this is a class promise I came across when looking into different ways to maintain strong classroom expectations. 

We are peaceful with our words and our actions.

We are respectful of people and things.

We are responsible for all we say and do.

We are enthusiastic learners and always work with excellence.

A personal goal I have for myself for the next school year and all of the school years to come, is to stay true to my expectations as a teacher.  I start the school year so strong and clear with my expectations, procedures, rules, and then as the years goes on I feel like I become lenient and then I get mad at myself for letting go of my high expectations.  This year I want my students to know that I have high expectations for them because I know they can reach them.  I want to start the school year strong and end the school year strong!

#8 Ways to incorporate reflection of learning/growth

When taking steps to grow as a teacher and improve on the goals I have set for myself,  I looked into age appropriate resources and ways to have my students reflect on their learning and overall understanding.  I like how all the visuals below, can be adjusted to accommodate different learners.  For example, at the end of the day if I want my students to complete the  "Ticket out the door" handout, I could have students either draw a picture of something they learned throughout our day or write words describing something they learned.  The Weekly Reflection handout offers students the ability to draw pictures for different subject areas and write about a favorite part of the week, a goal, and something they want their teacher to know.  Again I think I would adjust these subject areas to personalize it more and maybe even have a social area for students to reflect upon.  The very first visual using the hand symbols is a quick way for me to check for student understanding.  I often ask for thumbs up or thumbs down, but I like how this seems to be specific to content.  This would be a helpful check in to use when guiding instruction or when pairing up students to work together.  

#7 Displaying rules/expectations/steps within the classroom

When looking ahead to next year, and at the same time reflecting back on the year I just had, I am thinking of ways I want to use visual steps, rules, and expectations within my classroom.  Considering I teach Kindergarten I felt like I incorporated plenty of visuals referring to academic needs, and helpful resources in the classroom.  Then I thought about all the different routines and procedures I teach at the beginning of the school year.  I introduce something simple such as cleaning up from wake up work, or transitioning from group to independent work, I model it, they model it, we practice.  I thought that was enough, but then I thought how if I have same expectations of them for the entire year why not create the expectations/rules of what it would look like for each thing and leave it up for the entire year.  It's one thing to model the process which is very important, but it's another thing to label it and reference the expectations the entire year.  I often think how I have many move in students throughout the year, how helpful for them to see the expectations posted of each area throughout the room.  A goal I have for myself is to make a list of all the new posters I want to have in my classroom, and how I think these visuals might help my students be more responsible, purposeful, and held accountable for the expectations.  When looking through my Responsive Classroom book  (the interactive modeling section) and the  Becoming a Reflective Teacher book, I came across a handful of ways to I want to make sure my rules, and visuals are used the entire school year for me and my students! Here is a simple visual of morning meeting rules for all students to follow, other samples of rules for morning meeting can vary for grade levels.

#6 End of the Year Reflection

As the last day of school came to an end my mind was all wrapped up around finalizing memory books, creating the end of the year video, taking pictures to add to the video, entering in assessment scores, writing report card comments, and signing kindergarten certificates.  Many nights I took home big bins of things to do, and when I put my daughter to bed, I exhaustedly went to work.  There was so much stress and anxiety leading up to the last couple days of school.  I had mixed emotions, I was so excited to have the summer off and spend time with my family, and do things outside!  But then as I was creating our end of the year video, I started to cry! I didn't want to let go of my class, we had a great year, at times it was really hard and I was stretched but every single one of them grew in one way or another! I was proud, and instead of entering scores, I just sat and watched the video 4-5 times through (it was a ten minute video, so I kind of wasted a lot of time)

When thinking about how I was reflecting as a teacher, I made sure that my students reflected on their school year as well.  During the last week of school I tired to create some closure for my students, and allowed them to reflect on the year we had and how far they have come.  When I presented their memory books to my students and their families at our celebration.  I made sure to acknowledge the progress of their work throughout the year.  When going around and looking through memory books with my students the would say things like, "Mrs. Richardson, look how I drew myself at the beginning of the school year, or  "Why did I write my letters like that?" Not only do the memory books hold memories of their work but they show the amazing progress of each individual student.  We spent time making observations about how we grew as learners.  During one of our closing circles we talked about something that was a little challenging for us at the beginning of the school year and how it isn't anymore.  Another day we spend time writing about our favorite field trip, our favorite read aloud book, our favorite art project we created, and much more! It is so exciting to see what the students actually remember.  When going around and helping them with their writing, they were writing down memories of things I thought were maybe insignificant, but it was something that they remembered and it was important to them!  Overall, I am constantly reminded of the importance of reflection, not just for me, but for my students as well!  I think I want to focus on how I can implement more daily reflection into my instruction.  I often have students reflect around conference times or when we end a big theme/unit but I don't always do it daily.  This is something I want to improve on for next year....

#5 Closing Circle

The last week of school, Monday-Thursday I led a closing circle.  I had done this throughout the school year but it was sporadic, it wasn’t consistent and a part of our daily routine.  It always depended on if the students cleaned up from discovery time fast enough or if it was the middle of January and it took us 10-15 minutes just to get all of our winter gear on to go home!  I knew the importance and value of it, I just didn’t think I could make time for it every single afternoon right before we went home.  That being said, the days I did do it, the students and myself ended the day on a positive note.  We reflected about what we learned that day, shared something we enjoyed, shared a goal we want to do for tomorrow, or just did a calming quiet game.  It was such a peaceful way to end our busy day.  I put so much value and appreciation into our daily morning meetings, I now know, I personally want to make time and do the same for closing circles.  Last summer when I went to the Responsive Classroom training I watched a video of a classroom teaching using this “Wish” chant at the end of her closing circle every day.  The students held hands and could close their eyes is they wanted to.  A selected student could even say it first and the rest of the class could repeat it. 

The time has come…

To say goodbye…

We have learned a lot.

Some of us will go…

Some of us will stay…

We will all be here together tomorrow

To work,

To have fun,
To be in our room 3 community!

I have also referred back to to responsive classroom resource book I received during the training, as well as accessing closing circle resources through the Responsive Classroom website.  As I have flipped through my book resource I feel like a terrible teacher as I see all my post it notes and tabs covering the book, and I feel like I maybe accomplished 1/4 of everything I had wanted to do!  Then again, I need to remind myself I cant change everything all at the same time, and if I want to do something well, I need to go slow! 

#4 Goal Setting

Looking ahead for next year, I want to have my students do more goal setting.  In the beginning of the school year we create our “Hopes and Dreams” and we leave them posted for the entire year.  We come back in January to see if we reached our goal or if it something we are still working on.  This year I started to implement goal setting with my students writing.  Before I released them to go off into “Wake-Up Work” or writing in their journals or writing workshop I asked them to just think of a goal they wanted to focus on for the day/week.  I listed examples and modeled what it would look like in their journals.  I gave examples such as making sure to use punctuation, starting each sentence with a capital letter, using finger spaces, or even something likes using neat handwriting.   It was more of a verbal goal.  The students would come to me when they were done, or I would be walking around the room, and they would tell me their writing goal.  I would give feedback as to how I saw them using that goal.  This year I want to set goals with a lot of things we do in our day, and I want to make it more of a habit, something that the students get used to.  I feel that when students set goals for themselves, they hold themselves accountable, and they are more likely to reach it when they label what they are working on.  Also, there is a great sense of pride and accomplishment when the goal is met and achieved.  When looking into different ways I could have my students set goals as well as monitor and adjust the goals they are working on, these are the resources I found, and might possibly use.  I love the resource I found where students can select three goals to work on in all parts of their day, reading, writing, math, social etc.  I love the visual cards and how you can change them.  I’m already thinking of so many different ways I can use these! I can’t decide If I should laminate them, one for each student, so they can interchange throughout the year, or even week. Or if I want to see the progression of goals that students set in the beginning of the year compared to the end of the year.  If needed I could create my own specific goals that maybe pertain to a specific student, or standard that we are working on.  I also think how this tool could be used as a way to track student behavior, or process of STAT purposes.  Basically, I am just really excited about this tool, and I know it will be extremely helpful for me in years to come!

#3 Reflecting after reader's/writer's workshop

When thinking about how I want my students to reflect on their learning, I came across some reflection sheets or samples for students to use after reading or writing workshops.  I think that I could use both of these in my classroom.  I think that with anything it would take great practice and modeling to have my students use this effectively.  I also think that this would be a reflection item I would establish maybe in October as the month of September I am just trying to establish routines and procedures in the classroom.  I think about how often I reflect as a teacher.  I feel like I am constantly monitoring in my head and saying, "Oh, that didn't go how I intended" or "Wow, they got it, lets keep going..." I want my students to learn how to monitor their learning and reflect on what they did well and what they need to work on for next time.