Now that I have had almost a week out of school, it has given me some time to think about the year and what I am going to do next year to make things better. I also realized that I stopped blogging, stopped reading blogs as much (and I am sure I missed a lot of great content), and just got into a slump. There was a period of time where I was not sure where I would be working next year and it through me into this weird phase of everyday my possibilities for jobs and my prospects kept changing…in the end I am back at my same school and 4/5 teaching which makes me very happy. Not that it was a totally terrible thing that I stopped blogging and kind of got disconnected but I know that I need to get back into it. Whether or not people are reading or going to read this blog is not what I am going to use this for…I really want to use it to help me reflect on things and to figure things out in my head. Here are some goals I am setting for myself for next year and I am going to remember them since I am putting them down!
- Blog more: I am going to actually post things. I believe once a week is reasonable to either post a lesson that went really well, maybe one that didn’t go so well so I can learn to fix it for the future, or just something in general about school that is going on. This is a goal I know that I can accomplish.
- Find more blogs: I have my 7-8 on my google reader but I feel like there are many more out there I should take advantage of so I will go on the hunt! (I also need to find a google reader replacement and soon)
- Learn to takeover honors geometry: I am going to be moving into the role of taking over the honors geometry curriculum at my school and in 2 years be the only teacher on this course. I want to truly learn what I really like about this course and work with the other teacher to make sure that I don’t get lost in the midst of a new course. I am super excited to have this class and this opportunity to evolve this course into something great!
- Redefine Algebra II Trig: I am also teaching 3 sections of our lower level algebra II class. I taught it this year and just tried so many random things to engage my students. A lot of things definitely worked…a lot of things didn’t. I want to move away from the textbook and create my own instructional units. I really love this class and even though my students were quite challenging, I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I really want to figure out what is good fo this curriculum and this group of kids and how I can keep them entertained while learning as well.
- Continue my skill assessments: I had kids telling me at the end of the year that they actually liked the skill assessments and they felt less pressure for the final. My students also did really well on their final exams comparatively so I am really proud of them and I want to continue this next year as well.
- Talk less and have the students do more: I felt that I sometimes would “lecture” a little bit too much in my regular geometry course. Even though I am not teaching that course next year, I want to try to focus on that in all my courses to see if this is true and how I can change it. All my students are going to be in pods of four next year so I am excited to use this to my advantage as I had to have students physically move the desks when I wanted them to collaborate. Note to self: This requires more classroom management so deal with it early on in the year so you don’t fall into that trap
- Use geogebra: With my school getting chromebooks next year I want to have them pull them out and use geogebra regularly to discover things instead of me just telling students to believe it or proof it for them as they all just stare me blank expressions.
- Continue to add to this list! – As I keep thinking about things over summer, I need to go back to this list and add to it so that way I will force myself to follow this at the start of next school year.
This is making me feel great for next year already and it is nice to have a space to debrief!
Functions Are Fun 