#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....