Skip to main content

End of year reflection

It's June 2nd.
School ends on June 19th.
That's only 17 calendar days away;
13 school days until summer vacation,
and, I dread saying goodbye to my students,
even though we're all more than ready to leave school behind for fun, lazy summer days.

I will miss...
greetings in the mornings.
unsolicited hugs.
my crown and the title of class monarch.

I will miss...
Socratic Seminars.
reading aloud to my students.
quick writes.
and collaborating with my grade level partner.

I will miss...
trips to the library.
lunchtime conversations.
professional talks with colleagues.
and my goofy, exasperating, brilliant students.

I look forward to...
moving from grades 6 and 7 to grade 5.
a new group of students.
teaching the PYP.
ramping up technology in my classroom.
keeping my students for the whole day.
teaching math and science.
and some stability for the next few years.

I look forward to...
new collegial collaborations.
Genius Hour.
Mystery Skypes.
global connections.
and many more hugs and laughs.

Here's to a smooth end to this school year,
a restful, productive summer,
and the anticipation of a new beginning to a wonderful school year.

Here's hoping the same to all of you.

Cross posted to Two Writing Teachers, Tuesday Slice of Life





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Reading Strategies Book - Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension

The strategy lessons highlighted in Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension, in The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo are critical to students’ engagement and comprehension, as well as their ability to write literary essays, or even book reviews, summaries and reflective pieces about books. If students aren’t able to talk about books in a way that is invigorating and joyful, they will be less likely to develop an interest in growing ideas for writing about books. In her introduction to this chapter, Jennifer Serravallo, reminds us that when conversations go well, children are inspired by what they read and are motivated to keep reading. However, when conversations fall flat, then kids get bored and tune out. How do we avoid this situation and teach kids to  have  focused conversations about books?  The answer is easy: teach kids  strategies to help them develop effective conversa...

Are we listening?

A child sits alone with a ripped worksheet packet on his desk. He appears to be singing or subvocalizing something though no one hears him. Or, perhaps they're ignoring him. The teacher stands at the front of the room teaching on the SmartBoard. The children follow along in their worksheets. Except the child sitting alone. He is in his own world. No one engages him and he engages no one. My heart aches for this child. He is physically and emotionally removed from the class. I ask him why his paper is ripped. (It's not an accidental rip.) He says he did that on a different day. When he had been frustrated about the work. He tells me that he sometimes sits by himself because the work is too hard for him. He later tells me that he sits by himself because the teacher thinks he talks too much during the lesson.  He says he does that because he wants to find out about the "lives of the other children". My first impulse is to rescue him from the wrongheade...

A Slice of Life Story: Wishin' and Hopin', A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb

I normally only write about teaching related issues on this blog.  But, I've decided to make some changes in the New Year.  One change I am making is to start posting book reviews, or posts prompted by books I'm reading, that are in some way connected to teaching, learning, schooling, or education in general.  I aim to broaden the scope of my blog so that I don't find myself frantically searching for a topic to post about every week; this has stopped me from posting on a regular basis.  The purpose of making this change isn't to proliferate my blog with trivial posts, but rather to allow myself a broader scope from which to ruminate about learning in the broadest sense of the word. Wally Lamb's Wishin' and Hopin', A Christmas Story  is a great read and not just at Christmas time.  Lamb was able to take a one-time fictitious event - the 1964 Christmas play production by the students at St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parochial School - and build a story around it tha...