Improvement Plan
After a year of struggling, there are numerous things I want to work on/change about the way I teach. The three things that I feel will help me most next year, however, are not necessarily things I can implement fully during summer school. I'm hoping to try out some new stuff during summer school and spend my free time thinking through some of my classroom snafus.
The Three things I need to work on:
1. Classroom Management
Managing a classroom was one of my biggest challenges this year because I think I had an entirely wrong idea of how to do it well. I thought managing a classroom meant being the biggest witch on the planet. When that didn't work, I became a bunny rabbit. What I'm finding is that classroom management starts first with being yourself and yet being confident and assertive. You have to know you're the adult in the classroom. But that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your own personality. This balance has been difficult for me to figure out, and even though summer school kids are angels (usually) compared to kids during the actual school year, I feel like this is something I can work on a little as I teach my lessons this summer. I'm looking forward to this second chance to set up a classroom so I can do a better job of being a confident version of myself.
2. Organization
One thing that will make my teaching life a lot easier is streamlining my organization. I went into the school year with an organization plan that just didn't fit my energy level or school/classroom. Now that I know how my school works and since I'll be teaching the same set of kiddos, I feel better about my ability to create classroom organization and documentation systems that actually work.
3. Reading Instruction
A huge challenge this year was trying to teach literary skills to a bunch of kids who can hardly read. Since I'm the reading teacher, I feel like it is my responsibility to at least try and help those students who need basic reading instruction or phonetic help. I've been doing a lot of research on how to teach reading and how to handle differentiated instruction, but I'm not sure what will work best for my kids. Plus, I want to give my students more time in class to read books on their reading level, but I'm still trying to decide what incentives/grading system will make that work best. We're reading The Giver with our summer school class, so I'm planning to do some experimentation with literature circles and the like.
ONE thing I do well:
I'm flexible. I don't mind changing what's not working, and I don't mind researching things to make my instruction better. I guess that's worth something.
