Every year is a chance to become better! When I first started teaching, I was surprised that I wasn’t the only one in the building there before August, already setting up, cleaning out, and preparing for a new class. Being a brand new teacher, it was obvious why I was there: I had a new classroom to de-junk; new management systems and procedures to create; new tools, programs, and protocols to learn; and a million things to wrap my head around. But as I enter into my 4th year of teaching, I’m starting to see why all teachers, not just first year teachers, have hours of work ahead in order to re-start a school year.

A teacher’s summer usually comes to a rude awakening when she enters her classroom for the very first time of the new school year, only to find every piece of furniture piled in 1 corner of the room. After days of rearranging and cleaning out junk you find that you didn’t know existed, your mindset shifts to the “list.” You know…the one that you made during the school year of all the things you would do during the summer when you had all that extra time that no longer exists. You start quickly prioritizing the list, knowing that you’ll never get it all done before the students arrive. Wait. THE STUDENTS?! Amidst all the paperwork and crazy beginning of the year deadlines, you have to prepare your room for your new class of STUDENTS. And then it hits you (particularly in the world of Kindergarten)- these are BEGINNING OF THE YEAR Kindergarteners….most of them won’t be able read or write, much less sit still for 5 minutes! Then you start digging into old lesson plans just to remember what to even teach the first week of school.  And all these stresses exist even WITHOUT changing other factors like school, grade level, teammates, and classroom. There are hardly enough hours to get your room ready for a new class, much less to get everything ready with improvements to the year before.

Experience definitely makes things easier. It gives you a structure to start with and a comfort level with the responsibilities of day-to-day teaching. But throughout the school year, little things jump out that need improvement in the classroom, whether it be an issue of management, organization, or instruction. And in the moment, it’s hard to make those improvements. That’s why there will probably never come a year when I don’t spend parts of summer thinking and planning for the next year. So I’m learning that the beginning of the year cleaning, stress, and preparation does get easier; it just doesn’t go away. You shift from thinking about how you’re going to create something out of nothing, to how you’re going to tweak something to make it better.

I want to hold myself accountable to yearly change, so here you have it: my first annual post where I will reflect on aspects from the last year, and set goals for how I want to improve them for the next! These action steps are works in progress…but as I put them in place and these aspects of my classroom transform, I plan to go into more depth, reflecting on these changes and sharing resources that might be helpful along the way!

 

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1. Buzzworthy Work Bulletin Board

Rather than my current bulletin board with 22 clips holding up 22 pieces of student work, this board will now display pictures of student collaboration in action and QR codes with digital creations that students have made! I want to use the bulletin board in my room to showcase student learning, creations, and projects in a new and improved way.

2. Furniture: Out with the Old, in with the Innovative!

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been gradually de-cluttering my classroom and moving furniture to make more room for spaces that impact student learning. This year, I moved out a teacher desk and some shelving. With a more open room, I am excited to bring a Makerspace/STEM corner to my classroom, where old recyclables will be stored and reused and where students will get opportunities to problem-solve and create.

3. Wonder Wall/Friday Genius Hour

I still haven’t quite wrapped my mind around how I’m going to begin Genius Hour- a weekly time for students to pursue and learn about their personal passions- with my kinders; but I know that as the year progresses, we’ll get there together! I’m excited to create a Wonder Wall in my room, where students can post curiosities or questions they have. This new classroom feature can serve as a spring board for Genius Hour research, and also for whole class project based learning throughout the year!

4. Re-vamped Morning Meeting

As part of our school improvement plan action steps, our school is going school-wide with morning meetings this year! I hope to learn some new ideas to revamp this morning time my students and I use to start our day. Some ideas I’m already thinking about: Rather than always getting individual student responses around the circle, I’d like to incorporate more productive partner talk, so that we can cover more topics and have more discussion, with a little less sharing out. I’d also like to diversify our topics for discussion, for example: class mission/rules, compliments, concerns, what students are proud of/working on, feelings, academic goals, content review.

5. Homework

This year, rather than just using CMAPP (Wake County’s curriculum guide) as a resource for homework (worksheets), I have created a homework grid. The purpose of this optional grid is to provide flexibility/choice (16 tasks, all month to do it, pick the task you’re in the mood for), teach responsibility (students practice “school” skills at home to get better at them, and color the box after completion), and make homework and learning fun (tasks that get students moving and working on academic/social skills in play-based, collaborative, and family oriented ways). This homework grid will give students a resource to engage in practicing skills across the curriculum.

6. Nonfiction Leveled Readers for Research

As we work toward more voice and choice for students and more opportunities for students to research what they are passionate about, I need a greater variety of information sources for students to use. Digital tools are always great, and we have many at our disposal. But there will always be a place for books too! One challenge with K students is their (sometimes) limited reading skills. So this year, I hope to find some nonfiction leveled readers, varied in topic and also rich in information, for students to have as another research tool.

7. Easier + More Effective Data Tracking System

This one scares me, because it is a big undertaking! With K students, another challenge is conducting assessments: they usually have to be done one-on-one and take anywhere from 3-20 minutes per student depending on what is being assessed. It is a huge time waster and keeps classroom teachers from actually teaching the skills that need to be assessed. However as educators, we really need formative assessment to drive our instruction. My goal is to look at our quarterly curriculum standards, how they tie into the broad report card clusters that parents see, and for each quarter, to create a series of quick assessments/checklists that will drive our teaching and more clearly tie to report cards. As I figure out how to ensure that this new system aligns with district requirements, I will continue to share on how our new data tracking system goes!

8. Digital Portfolios

What if, by the time that each student graduated high school, he or she had a portfolio of work, all in one digital location, displaying both learning over time and showcasing his or her best work throughout the years? Rather than placing a grade on the child, a portfolio shows the potential and growth in any learner; increases motivation as students write and create for an audience; provides an opportunity for practical, 21st century learning; and saves student work collectively in a portfolio that can be shared with others. Our goal as a Kindergarten team is to have our students each creating their own digital portfolios through Google Sites, where they link their work (in Google or other forms of media) to showcase learning over time; and hopefully students will continue to add to their portfolios over the years as they learn and grow!

So here I go into year number 4! To my 2017-2018 batch of students: I am so excited to meet all of you, and to learn & take risks with you this school year!! Let’s do this!