I started to plan for next year. Upon analysis of my own abilities to teach, I realize that I have an issue with timing. It seems that in a good week, getting the timing of a lesson to layout properly is still a bit of a struggle. In my perfect educational world, I believe my lessons should be no more than 3 days, but they often stretch to 5 or 6- especially when they involve a large amount of reading. That is what has prompted the early lesson development.
I asked my students who will be leaving me next year what I should keep and what needs to not be re-visited. To my delight, they all told me that I do not really have anything that needs to be tossed. Hands down, they all told me to keep the bell work. It was the number one tool that they all were glad they had worked on throughout this year. They came in from taking the ACT and said the very first test that they took was all about the bell work- correcting spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes in sentences. I was very surprised!
The next activity comes from my Great Expectations training last summer- they all told me to keep the creeds and to keep the classroom bonding activities. Several students said that I needed to keep these as it really helped them to be able to work together as a class, in small groups, or even as a pair. They told me that it made a big difference, so I plan to incorporate a new activity on the first day back from every long break: summer, Christmas, and spring breaks. I have found that they are reluctant to work on those days, and if I come in with something unexpected, they just might shake off the back to school blues and get motivated to work! It will be interesting!
A very positive change occurred this week- I copied the test exemplars, laminated the parts for each: the reading and questions, split them into groups, and gave them a highlighter and a "cheat sheet" to help determine the area of focus for the type of questions that were asked. Almost all got busy, and I saw so much effort and thought across the board! It was awesome! I just finished grading them. Those that finished made high marks- those that played, well they earned the mark that they received...and those were just a handful of kiddos. I loved this! It gave them a chance to break apart the questions that they will see on the EOI, and it made them really process the stories, no matter how "boring" they thought they were.
All in all, the past week was a success! Another week down and moving forward!
