I'm going to make much better use of email. In particular, I want to reach out to the parents of the kids who struggle. Last year I had an ongoing dialogue with about 8 of them. I really kept them in the loop as far as deadlines and how thier sons and daughters were doing in class-- I would shoot off a few emails during my study hall. They were incredibly thankful. I also want to let the kids know they can email me (at my school email of course) if an issue comes up. Not "how do you do the homework?" but an issue of other sorts. Sometimes we forget the things that are going on at home, and the kids feel funny talking about them in front of their peers. Anyway, what's your New Years Resolution??
Give more meaningful projects. This will be my second time teaching this course, and it will be my only prep, so I'll have time to really plan some neat things!
Work with colleagues to form a PLC to explore, plan and teach more meaningful reading comprehension lessons.
Continue to work with my grade level team - bring more cross-curricular planning to our meetings and teach new strategies to them for use in the classroom. *Actually* check my messages in Skyward this year. I always forget about them. Bring more compare-and-contrast activities into reading. And... we're going to try introducing a handful of SAT words in the MS grades. Still planning on how I want them to function in class
To have a better control on classroom management. I also want to use more of the LFS strategies that I learned the previous year.
To do a job of teaching writing; my head is spinning with ideas that I need to sort through and organize. This is one area where I don't always feel that I do a particularly good job. I'll be sharing my office next year and will have some new leadership responsibilities as well, so the annual resolution of being more organized must be followed through with!
My goal is to remain positive and organized throughout the year, as well as to keep an ideal balance of work/home life.
I have three goals. The first is to plan challenging lessons for my gifted class. The second is to read five adolescent novels a month. The third is to maintain positive relationships with parents through emails and website updates.
-- Be nicer and have more patience. Teaching a range of students has taught me a lot about how a child changes with each grade level. I had to learn what is appropriate for a third grader to do compared to a sixth grader-- this being new to me since I studied to teach in grades 7 to 12. (Now I'm doing exactly the opposite ) -- Do more grading during the school day. I really can't leave school until I've graded what needs to be done-- I bring stuff home and I'm instantly too tired to do anything. I also need to remind myself that going over work is just as important (if not more) than teaching a lesson on content. -- Collaborate more with teachers when it comes to projects. I should have done this last year but since it was my first year, I wanted to sorta do things on my own and figure things out. This year I know how to and when I should reach out to other teachers to have them assist students with parts of projects. -- Enjoy spending time with my co-workers more often. It was rush, rush, rush with everything in my classroom and while I was busy grading or lesson planning, I missed out on a lot of chit-chat time with my fellow teachers. Not sure if this will happen or not this year, but I'd like to change it.
1. Incorporate more project/challenge based activities into my class. I've got a couple of projects, but I've always struggled with ways to do that meaningfully while teaching literature (and not losing the focus of the literature). 2. Stand up and fight for more technology integration in my district. They've given us laptops for the kids, and we have so many things available, but they chain us down when it comes to some great tools that are free and valuable on the net.
I, like BioAngel, need to grade papers during the school day with much more consistency. I procrastinate WAY too much when it comes to grading and my poor students don't always get timely feedback. I really need to keep up on my grading. I also need to be a bit more organized and stay positive during the hardest days of the school year (post-Christmas break to spring break)...actually I'll be on maternity leave during much of that time this year
1. Have a positive attitude even when we have 6 meetings a week. 2. Grade papers in a more timely manner and return them to the kids.
1) Make better use of technology (Edmodo, blogs, wikis, etc.) to better help meet my students' needs 2) Encourage student participation and interest beyond the classroom by opening up a library in my room with historical DVDs, movies, documentaries that I've taped off TV, books, etc. 3) Learn more about my content areas!
1. Survive. Haha that's my number one goal! 2. Better classroom management -- last year I felt like I (subconsciously now reflecting back on it) gave in to more than I should have because I wanted them to like me. 3. Learn as much as I can about my courses; they are all new for me!
My goal for this year is to make the student switching that I will be doing with another teacher as successful as possible.
1. more consistent in behavior management 2. more writing with my students 3. try not to let all the other school issues get to me
I'm at a new school this year so my goals are to readjust some of the things I have done previously: 1. We are not allowed to use school email to contact parents so I have to come up with a new communication plan. 2. We will have an online grade book that is accessible to students and parents. I will have to get used to entering grades daily.
A suggestion that my principal made me incorporate last year (I was new to this set of parents so things had to be done differently)-- 1. Send home a letter when you start a new unit and/or a new project. Give parents a detailed list of what concepts will be covered, what resources are available for students to use and for parents to use, and even a set of dates (if available). It allows for parents to have a clue on what their child is doing in school. I would also have a little sign off sheet part for parents to sign and I would count that the child brought it back to me as a HW grade. (And it really covers your butt if a child lies to a parent about not knowing about an assignment, etc) 2. Find out what type of technology (if not email) you can use. At my school, for the younger grades with use TeacherReacher/Acornet and for the older grades we use Moodle. Parents can access TeacherReacher, so I can post up homework assignments, actual homework files for parents to download in case their child forgets the homework, links to resources, etc. 3. Honestly, verbal communication (especially face-to-face) is the very best way to handle a situation. I *hate* talking to parents-- it gives me horrible anxiety (even with the sweet parents)-- but it helps for the parents to see that you are a caring individual who is an ally for their child (not the enemy). Not all parents will love you-- I have one set of parents (its really just the Mom) who hates me but apparently they hate the principal too and told him straight out, so its not a huge surprise. But if they see that you're putting in the time and effort to clue them in on what is going on in school, help their child in any way possible, and know your stuff, you'll do great Hope you don't mind me sharing-- it was a tough lesson for me last year, but I'm glad of the wisdom I've gained
1. Stay on top of grading papers!! This is my major downfall! 2. Prepare for my maternity leave so the sub has an easy time, and the students are ready for state testing. 3. Not stress out too much over the little things. 4. Stay more on top of students and their quality of work put forth.
I'm at a new school, in a new district and grade level, so my first item is to be flexible so I can adapt and adjust. Secondly, I need to control the "piles" that clutter up my teacher area!
Great idea on a post! I have several goals as well: 1. Do a better job of keeping anectdotals and record keeping of children progress. 2. Stay better organized and filing papers. 3. Have student led conferences where the students talk about their progress. 4. Have more fun with my students, laugh more, smile more and allow them more freedom within boundaries. 5. Let the students be more aware of their progress and how they are doing. Set goals with them and let them work towards them. I have big goals for my prekinders and kindergartners... I want them to play a more active role in their learning. Give them more power/knowledge about their progress so they can share the responsibility of grasping the material. (with this said... hoping my class remains at 15 so I can incorporate more of this.)
More Hands On Activities. ... I have a hard time finding appropriate activities for middle school students so any suggests would be great!!
I've always been very organized, but I have to admit things have grown a little messy in past two years. Nothing crazy, mind you, but I've been cleaning and organizing this week. Especially my hundreds and hundreds of computer files. I of course have them in specific folders, but it's time to weed!
What a timely thread: 1. Be consistent in grading, class procedures, and management. 2. Relax and have a sense of humor in class. 3. Maintain high expectations for my students throughout the school year. 4. Collaborate with the teachers for each age group (I am teaching 8th, 10th, and 12th this year).
Ahh, I have many, but here are a few: 1. Be more organized so I can in turn help my kids be more organized. 2. Streamline my grading process. 3. Be more consistent with discipline. 4. Update my website at least once a week.
Some of the projects I used when I taught 7th grade: - I had them watch and review an episode of Cyberchase on PBS. It's funny, and it applies mathematical concepts, particularly the "Cyberchase for Real" part of the show. And it was camp enough that we all had a good laugh. - WE had British math penpals and did a project on currrency exhanges. - I printed up part of the IKEA catalog, and they "shopped" within a budget and made a scale drawing of the room they were designing. - I printed up the price sheet from Saturn and had them "buy" a car (again, on a budget) and determine the monthly payments at a given interest rate. OK, I cheated a bit here. They haven't learned anything about "e" yet, so I couldn't do compound interest; we used the formula for simple interest. I explained about compound interest, and that they would learn about it in 11th grade. - We figured out the monthly mortgage payments on a local house that was up for sale.
I second this..... especially the computer files. I really need to come up with a great system to keep files organized on computer. I have worked on google apps this summer creating categories on my files. they look great - I have to make sure it stay this way.
Not have scary piles of junk everywhere! Last year, I had a "black hole" corner where kids didn't go and my stuff piled deeper and deeper as the year went on. I'm moving rooms, and am trying really hard to have a more child-centered, organized room. Ex: Why do I hoard construction paper away like it's gold? We get more every year, and some of my old stuff is starting to get faded and gross. I could put it on a lower shelf in the room and teach the kids to be responsible with it (just like any other supply). Another Ex: I realized that I hadn't opened my desk drawers in months when I cleaned them out at the end of the year and found my "emergency" cash-stash from August. I never, ever sat at my desk. It was a clutter magnet. I don't want it anymore!
Goals My goals for 2011-2012 are to: 1. Lay off the sarcasm with students (I've been working on this goal for years and it's gotten a lot better, but every once in a while...) 2. Reduce the number of worksheets I use (my teammates love worksheets and they get copies made for me so it's easy for me to overly rely on them) and assign more authentic reader responses 3. Figure out how to do the writer's workshop approach in our limited class time (Our schedule is very choppy) 4. Learn our new math program and run guided math groups I just reread the OP and see you asked for one resolution, but now I don't know which one to pick!
I'm switching from self-contained to departmentalized this year so 1) learn to love being departmentalized 2) use more technology 3) find/steal/create more projects that will get the kids passionate about writing 4) improve my RtI documentation since I will have many more students
