2014-2015 IS DONE!!!
My second year of teaching is done! Whew! This year flew by. As the last week came up, I couldn't believe that we were done! I learned a lot this year about myself and about my students. I wanted to reflect a little on my experiences this year and my goals for the following. (Oh and next year I will be teaching 2 levels of English and 2 different classes of French.. 4 preps... yay....)
English Reflections:
1) I enjoyed teaching English more than I thought I would. There were even times I preferred it over my French classes (though this had more to do with students than content)
2) There is a lot of pressure on English teachers. With testing and common core, this was a pressure I was not familiar with. I'm not sure I did my best in preparing students to continue to 8th grade. Whee many students did grow substantially in my class, I am not sure I am the reason they grew...
3) Time is not my friend in English class. I had so much to accomplish and such little time. I only get 50 minutes a day and by the time the students come in, settle down, free-read and we discuss the agenda, we are lucky if we have 35 minutes left for class/content.
4) I did not feel as confident in English class on how to help my students. I had parents and students coming to me to figure out ways to improve reading and writing skills and I found myself floundering in this area.
5) I LOVED working with students all year and connecting with them during the year. 7th graders are fantastic! :)
6) I worked with a 12 year veteran teacher who has this class down to a science. This was a pro and a con for me. Her way of teaching is great, but it didn't always agree with my own. In the long run I ended up coming up with some of my own materials as I either didn't understand hers or her materials didn't match my students' needs.
7) Grading in English class is a B*****! I fell behind so much this year in grading because I was just NOT prepared for the level/amount of grading required in English! I enjoyed reading my students' work, but I was overwhelmed by the workload!
8) Organization was a problem for me. What I thought was a good system, slowly turned to chaos by the end of the year. (Funny part is when I asked my students what they liked about my class, my students told me they enjoyed how "organized" I was. LOL!)
9) In the end of second trimester I started to have my students complete reading journals. These were great! I loved reading what students were thinking about while they read their books! Grading them was not fun, but I did enjoy reading and responding to their entries.
Goals for English next year:
1) Figure out a system where I can check in on students who struggle on a one-to-one basis. This was difficult to do last year and I feel that this is very important.
2) Figure out a way to group students and keep track of their competencies in reading. Maybe doing book talks of some sort where students are grouped based on similar needs.
3) Research how to teach reading and writing to middle school students! I need more resources and help on this!
4) I would like to try an interactive notebook next year.. It is what I am currently working on!
French Reflections:
This was a tough year for me in French. My students were fun but not studious. This may be partially my fault, as I made their explore class in 7th grade "fun" and I think I attracted students who wanted to have "fun". Don't get me wrong, I loved my students and they were a blast, but they also had a hard time focusing and getting to work. By the end of the year I was essentially handing out notes and covering each topic for a day and then moving on as we had run out of time!
Some new things I tried this year:
1) IPA (Integrated Performance Assessments) - I actually really liked these tests. They showed students what they could do with the language in real world settings and tested them on all levels (speaking, reading, writing and listening). The difficult part is that the tests are 3 parts and I didn't have the time to keep doing them. I did 2 of these and then went back to my original exams (mostly writing and listening). I honestly ran out of steam to make these exams and to keep making new materials (as I was doing this in English as well!) The other problem I had with IPAs is that our final exams don't match the purpose of the IPA. The final is all multiple choice with little to do with true proficiency and the IPAs are completely proficiency based. This divide gave me problems as my students were still responsible to take the exams and do well...
2) Student jobs - These were great at the beginning of the year! I loved them and so did the kiddos! In the long run I made the timeline too time consuming. Students were only in a post for 2 weeks. Next year I am going to bring them back, but have the students in each position for a month. Less work for me and for the students!
3) Going Paperless- With every student having an iPad, I thought it would be great to go paperless this year. Yeah... that ended up being a pain in the a**! Students wanted paper copies, the internet would have issues, some students wouldn't have their iPad or it would be dead (French is at the end of the day). In the long run, I ended up just giving paper copies of everything and then just posting the copies on our online learning management system (Haiku).
4) Extra Copies Binder - This is a must have for next year and I will continue it until our world goes paperless! :)
Goals for Next Year:
1) As we don't use the textbook much in class, I would like to create an interactive notebook for my students next year. I want to do it in English as well, so this might be more of an undertaking than I can handle... but I want to try!
2) I would like to get more IPAs going for next year and possibly talk the high school teacher into changing the final exams to better fit the IPA format.
3) Stay on schedule. Although I want to give the students as much time as they need, this is unrealistic! I need to create a schedule and stick to it from the beginning.
General Musings about me as a teacher:
I learned a lot about myself as a teacher this year.
1) I act tough, but when it comes time to bring down the hammer, I tend to be nicer than I should! I let students get away with too much this year, and I forgave them where others would not have. I need to be stricter from the beginning of the year and stick to my expectations!
2) I need to spend time on myself. Most nights I would come home to work on school work for the majority of my night and then get ready for bed and repeat... This did not go well... My husband was very understanding and supportive, but I was burnt out most of the time and did not do my best...
3) Parent contact is my least favorite part of the job. I need to force myself to do this! Several situations may have been avoided if I had just called home in the first place!
4) Grading is a pain... I need to really be selective about what I collect to grade. Sometimes I collected items and never really looked at them... Is this a waste of time for me and the students.. on that, I am still not sure.
5) ORGANIZATION is a must! I need to come up with a better system for next year! I lost papers, calendars, quizzes and so much more this year! I was about ready to cry by the end of the year! Lucky for me, I won a $300 grant for a classroom makeover and I hope to use some of that money to organize my room!
So my plans for the summer are this:
1) Read several books on reading strategies.
2) Study and plan interactive notebooks for English and French
3) Create IPAs for at least 2 more units in French
4) LEARN THE 6th GRADE CURRICULUM!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you all had a great year!
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