Reflection - Week 3

Hi all,

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one that has been unable to blog recently. Honestly, I have been caught up in the normal beginning of the school year hustle with some personal stuff thrown in on top and it has been hard to keep myself to a schedule. I am hoping that this week I can do much better!

I suppose I am currently in a Reflection phase since I am focused on benchmark testing and revising previous year's material. I know that teaching is about constant reflection and this is something I can say my PLC and I work very hard on. It is difficult to say that something you created or taught needs work, but having a supportive system within our PLC makes that process a little easier.

Things are still going smoothly in the classroom. We are preparing to start our first real unit of study (everything up to now has been more preparation for the remainder of the year) and I feel like I have laid the foundation for a successful year with my new students. I see them all attempting all of the assignments and trying to work out their own questions, but I also see that they are willing to struggle. This is something we have really tried to hit hard at the beginning of the year.

Challenges are starting to pop up since the students are starting to come out of their shells. While it is interesting to see some of my students open up and talk to me throughout the day, there are definitely some students that have shared their whole life story with me. They like to talk and so there have been lots of opportunities to reteach expected behaviors. Luckily, there have been no instances that have warranted phone calls home. I have, however, had some out in the hall conferences to help the students reset themselves.

My whoo-hoo moment came after grading out first "official" writing activity. Students went through the entire writing process from brainstorming to publishing on their opinion about the most important school rule. I was impressed with the level that my students are writing at and I am confident that they will be able to work on their skills and improve before moving on to the high school.

Some advice (that I have also had to remind myself) is that the students are still learning the way I work and I am still learning the way they work too. I have to keep in mind that we are still trying to find a way to work together and that will build over time. I am working on getting to know my students and use those little bits of information in the classroom to build a rapport. I am still very hopeful and excited at this point in my year and that is a good feeling for me.

Best wishes for a successful week :)

Vicky