Growth and Change

This year has brought about a lot of change and growth for me as a teacher and a person because of both changing grade levels and entering my master’s program.  I have worked on changing the environment of my room as well as the relationships in our classrooms.  I have put more intention behind how I set up the schedule of our day.  Everyday during our morning meeting I try and have some kind of activity where the kids have to work together to accomplish something or to just have fun.  I try to have more group activities to build connections with kids and to place more focus on relationship building as a class as well as with me. 

I also have grown and changed in the area of instruction.  I am much more aware of the intention behind my instruction as well as how it affects the kids.  I have moved toward a more constructivist classroom where the children drive some of my teaching.  I have tried to build some of my instruction time to accommodate the kids’ interests and to allow and encourage them to ask more questions.

This year I have grown in the area of discipline and content as well.  I have learned so much about designing unit and lesson plans using backwards design.  I have enjoyed the process and learned how to plan units around the knowledge that I want the kids to come away with.  I have found this to be a much easier process when planning units. 

Assessment is another area where I have grown and changed.  I have become much more aware of what, why and how I assess kids.  I have changed the type of assessments I normally do to make them more in line with standards and what kids are coming into first grade knowing.  I have also increased the amount of small group interventions I do to improve and increase knowledge. 

Overall, this has been a year of tremendous growth and change for both my students and myself.  I have learned so much and look forward to implementing more next year.