At the end of last year, so many of you were kind enough to complete a reflection and part of the process was leaving advice from to your future self. The results were a collective wisdom that was too good to gate-keep:
Classroom management/behaviors was definitely trending-
- Involve parents more quickly when any negative behavior occurs. Attempt to nip in the bud instead of too patiently dealing with it.
- Make sure you enforce strikes ones.
- Remember that students behavior is not personal. They alone are responsible for the things they say and do. All you can do is guide and teach them and how they respond is on them.
- Don't give too many chances for disruptions. It doesn't help anyone out in the long run.
- Identify students with 504s and IEP and set up parent meeting right at the beginning of the year.
- Keep your focus on things you can control. Be consistent with routines.
- Just breathe…when you have 23 kids calling your name, don’t try and talk over them. Get everybody reset & resettled and then answer their questions/meet their needs. You can’t work effectively or efficiently in that environment and neither can the kids!
- Instead of pushing through a lesson when students aren’t engaged, try to follow their lead and pivot. They will learn better when you have their attention and cooperation.
- Breathe, don't overreact, and possibly take a step back before choosing what to do next.
- Continue building positive relationships. Those save the day later when things get difficult.
- For students or classes with big behaviors, maintain parent communication and be consistent with follow through for the whole semester. You may find yourself falling behind on communication and/or choosing to ignore behaviors as time goes on but this will only make you more frustrated and is not helping anyone. Work towards forming positive relationships with these kids and hopefully this will lead to more successful outcomes, too.
- Strive for more open communication.
Organizing and prioritizing is important!
- Spend the time to get organized. The times that feel most frustrating are often because you were not prepared or organized as you wanted to be.
- You MUST work extra hard to plan activities and lessons diligently year round. Class prep should be the first priority!
These are very specific to the teacher, but don't forget about pacing-
- Hustle faster through projects! Even if some kids get left behind. You can't wait for everyone to be done.
- Go through earlier chapters more quickly. You can always go back to review at the end.
This one is for the math department-
- Sometimes students seem to understand what was being taught based off of cool downs and class work but are not as comfortable with the material on the test. Take the time to talk through the test and go over any questions that are worded a little weird so that your students can be more successful when testing.
ELA, take note-
- Grading essays is hard. Teach students to help with this by highlighting the things they need before turning in their work.
This one is dedicated to all the teacher/parents (there are a lot of us)-
- Being a teacher and parent at the same school is a unique experience. Get in your groove and make it another tremendous year! Think back to and build on all of the great memories from last year.
Some great insight to save for later in the year...-
- Coming back after winter break can be hard to get the kids back into their routines. Take the time to focus on reteaching and practice.
- Find a few new projects that make January - March a more exciting time to be at school.
- Plan in a light week for the kids mid-late February. There's always a dip in mental wellbeing, and some students struggled through last year.
And don't forget to take care of YOU-
- Take a personal day when you need one! Exhaustion is real and the world will still run if you need to take a break. Rest and recuperate.
- Stay out of the gossip, focus on a positive mind, and practice self care.
- Remember work/school balance.You can only do what you can do.
- Be kind to yourself.
Thank you all for being vulnerable and sharing these thoughts. I see you through your struggles and in all of your growth and come back to this page if you ever need some guiding wisdom. I hope it's a reminder that we don't have to be the best, but we always should be striving for better.