Thursday, May 24, 2012

Reflections Part 2

School's out for summer!!!!!  Today was our last day of school!  I am sooo excited:)  I will miss my sweet kids, but  I am definitely ready for summer!  I have had a very difficult week.  As you know last Friday, I was sick and missed work. Then, Monday, I was STILL sick.  So I stayed home again and went to the doctor.  They said that it was just viral and would have to run its course.  So, I went back to school Tuesday, but still felt sick. I also noticed on Tuesday that my eye was a little red. Yesterday I woke up with full blown pink eye, so I missed work again yesterday! There is so much to do at the end of the year, that I was very worried about missing so much.  But, it will all get done....I just keep telling myself that. 

Ok...so a few days ago I shared some things that I thought I did well this year.  Today I will share my goals for next year.  This could be a long one people....

1.  I have never been a plan ahead type person.   I always get done what I need to get done.  However, I can't help but thinking that I put way more stress on myself because I am always trying to do things last minute.  This is true even at work.  I'm not going to lie....I am often getting my materials ready for the day at 6:45 before my students come in at 7:10.  There.  I have said it.  I feel better!  I am also going to do a bit of justifying though.  On weeks when I have planned the whole week ahead of time, I end up not using all of what I had planned due to lack of  time or the students didn't get something, so I have to adjust and reteach.  Ok...now that I have justified my procrastination.....I will stop making excuses.  My goal next year is to have my plans and materials ready for the following week before I leave on Fridays.   This will be tough for me, but I really do think that it will make my life easier. 

2.  I do not feel confident as a writing teacher. I model, model, model.  Then, give them time to write.  However, I seem to be lost when it comes to conferencing with them about their writing.  I can read their papers and know what needs to be changed, but I don't know how to make them see it!  So often I will say, "read me what you wrote".  They read.  "Does that make sense?"  Then, they give me this look like, "I know I should say no, so I'm going to shake my head no, but it does make sense to me." So, my goal next year is to find a teacher who is really strong at teching writing, and ask if I can observe them conferencing with their students.  I definitely need some guidance.  Do you have any suggestions for me? Or good books to read on teaching writing?

3.  I WANT TO STAY ORGANIZED!!!!!  I am not an organized person.  At home or at school.  Now, I have to say....I always know where things are, but I'm sure to other people I look like a total mess.  I start off every year with such an organized, clean room, and then by September the end of the first week it is a mess. And, because I am not a good cleaner, I am not good at forcing the kids to be. So, my goal next year is to tidy up a bit each day before I leave, or to do a better job of getting the kids to clean and organize. 

4.  I have never been totally satisfied with what my kids do while I teach guided reading.  My first and second year, I did centers.  I just wasn't happy with this.  1. It was a lot of work for me. 2. I felt like kids need to be reading during reading time.  Even though we ask them to read at home for 20 minutes a night, they don't all have parents that enforce that.  So, they need to be doing it during the school day.  That's my opinion anyway. 3. I also felt like the centers weren't effective unless I was monitoring to ensure the students were on task. Last year my kids were very difficult.  They did seat work while I taught guided reading.  Otherwise, I got no teaching accomplished. I definitely didn't like that, but I had no other choice.  This year, my kids loved to read.  So, most of the time, they got their book box, found a spot to sit, and they read.  I started off the year by having them keep a reading response journal. I realized quickly that I wouldn't keep up with checking it very often.  I have heard so much about The Daily 5.  I want to read that book this summer, and see if I can get some ideas to modify and enhance what I did this year. What do your kids do while you teach guided reading?

Those are some of my goals for next year!  Hopefully putting them on here for everyone to read will keep me accountable!

Have a great day!

4 comments:

Lisa R. said...

Happy last day of school! I hope you are feeling better soon. I am with you on your goals for #2 & #3. Writing is definitely the most difficult for me to teach & organization...well lets just say it's not my strong suit!
Lisa
Learning Is Something to Treasure

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

I need to work on organizing and planning as well. This has been my first year teaching my own classroom, and while I don't feel I did as well as I could have, I am already looking and planning for next year to make things a lot better!

Shelley at Rhymes With Purple
http://purplepolkladots.blogspot.com

Alison Hislop said...

Hi Brittany!

Congratulations on finishing school for the year! I am a Grade 3 teacher in Australia, so still have 6 months of our school year to go....

I was reading through your last post, I am so glad you mentioned the Daily 5! I LOVE the Daily 5 - it works so well.... You have less to plan, more time to concentrate on small group teaching and the kids LOVE it! Because of our timetable we can only do it 3 days a week, and they are always looking forward to it! There are some great resources out there, but read the book first and then I can tell you what I am doing and you can search other blogs! I love this post http://3rdgradesahoot.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/daily-5-work-on-words-and-freebies.html

This is my class blog http://bjcmissh.global2.vic.edu.au/ and I do have a section about the Daily 5 if that helps!

I am your newest follower on TpT! Good luck and enjoy the start of your holidays - I hope you can recover from your sickness now!

Alison
mathswithmeaning.blogspot.com.au

Kelley Dolling said...

Happy summer . . . you made it. I love that you took a moment to reflect. I struggled with writing too, but then I broke it down a bit more and found Step Up to Writing. Although I teach first, I think this idea could work well for third too.

During August and September we do not write stories or papers. We only focus on writing quality detailed sentences. I don't want to know that, "A cat sat". . . I want to know what color cat is, where it sat, what it sat on, etc. We slowly build over these months and then we start working on tying sentences together and "explaining further." Soon they are writing great little stories. My first year of teaching I got pressure from the principal to "jump in" and get going, but I found that when I slow down and start with the basics things work out much better (and much more quickly). The principal left me alone when I started producing better writers :)

Step up to Writing is a rockin' program. It breaks down the writing process for kiddos, color codes each section, and is easy to use. It changed me as a writing teacher. Look into it if you can.

Have a wonderful summer and pop over for a visit if you get a chance. I am hosting my first Linky Party and would love for you to join in the fun.

Kelley Dolling
Teacher Idea Factory

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