Reflection Section!

Summer is here in Florida! The pool, the afternoon storms and the smell of BBQ is all evidence that school is out and it is summer! I consider myself lucky because I did not have to do any post planning this week. Our principal let us do all post planning after all the early release days last week.  While some of you are hoping for a Bachelorette post, it was not on this week. The Miss USA pageant and the Tony Awards ruled the airwaves. Apparently no one seems to care about Andi anyway. Kidding. Anyway, I figured I could use this time to reflect on my first year of teaching. Hopefully, you can help with some feedback for my second year!

First things first -- I was taught to reflect on the positive first!

What worked:
Lesson Plan template: My lesson plan template that I designed at the beginning of last year worked so well for me. It was nice to have a consistent and organized lesson plan format. My administrator made sure to mention that he appreciated my consistent and neat weekly lesson plan. It was easy to edit and change things. It was a simple and colorful excel spreadsheet, but you would be surprised how simple format can be better!

Erin Condren Lesson Planner: It was not until January that I bought this gem. I am so happy that I did! As much as I wish she designed an edition for secondary teachers, I was still able to adapt it to my needs. On our attendance software I was able to print rosters of each class and staple them into my lesson planner. Each week & day I was able to keep track of where each class is at in class and write notes for students if needed. It came in handy when my administrator asked for my notes about a student at the end of the year. Cover your butt, people!! Document. Document. Document.

Procedures: I established procedures at the beginning of the year. This could go to the things that I will need to do better as well, but I will explain later. As a first year teacher, I was not sure what my "peeves" were, or which procedures were important to me. It was hard to figure it out. I did seek the help of my coworkers and I was able to establish a good sense of classroom management.

What didn't work:
Procedures: Now that I know how my classroom was last year, I am more comfortable implementing procedures based on my teaching style. A teacher once told me, "Your first year teaching is mostly figuring out your classroom management style, and the second year, you focus more on the curriculum." I could not agree more.

Interactive Notebooks: These worked for me, but not the way I anticipated. The composition notebooks fell apart before the end of the first quarter. I also kept the Table of Contents on an erasable white board. Aside from keeping the students more accountable for their materials, I would consider assigning students an "absent buddy" (so they have someone to get missing work from) and keeping a large poster paper record of the table of contents in their binder Interactive Notebooks.

Notebook Checks vs. Grading individual papers: How do you do it? This year I checked notebooks, almost like a "surprise" check. I thought about making a notebook quiz that would determine how put together their notebook was. I am looking for your insight!

I am welcome to any advice that I can get! I appreciate each of my readers more than you think!