Goal Setting for the Year Ahead (Online Reflection #1)
Hello everyone! This year as I complete my final year of Core (finally, graduation here I come!) I will be detailing some of my experiences and reflecting on the lessons I learn as I complete the final stages of my undergraduate degree. I am looking forward to completing this final school year with my class-mates and fellow pre-service teachers as we enter the wild world of Secondary English/Language Arts classrooms.
My experience this school year will be shaped by the navigation of freshman year all over again. That’s right, I will be teaching all freshman English courses this year. I am excited and nervous for the challenges that wait around the corner.
During my preliminary search for inspiration in educational blogs, I found a post by a first-year teacher looking back on her first year. This was such a great, quick read that I’ll link for anyone looking for encouragement and an inside look into the first year of teaching.
To start off this new blogging journey, I want to lay out my goals for this school year. I love creating lists and being able to cross of an item brings a certain joy that proves progress and achievement, so I thought I would start off with a few items that I have already accomplished.
· Get to know the teachers in my department. Although the school year just started on Monday, I was able to attend a few days of in-service and I was able to help my Mentor Teacher (MT) set a few things up in her classroom. This allowed me to get to know my MT and a few other teachers before the school year officially started.
· Introduce myself to the administration at my school. Being able to attend a few days of in-service allowed me time to introduce myself to the principals at my placement school. This made the beginning of school seem less intimidating since I was able to initiate those meetings before the chaos that is the first week of school.
Now for the items that I’m still working on:
· Getting organized. I feel like this will always be the top item on my list of goals. I like to think that I am already pretty organized, but I always try to find ways to better myself in this area. Any tips in this area are very welcome and appreciated!
· Strengthening my teaching skills. This one is also a continuous item. I am of the school of thought that no matter how good you think you are, there are always areas to improve. I am excited to see how my pedagogy develops during this next year.
· Providing a safe space for my students. This is a huge goal of mine! I want all students who walk into my classroom to feel encouraged to access their prior knowledge to engage in bettering themselves in academic and personal growth. I feel like I am in a phenomenal spot to make this happen. My MT and the other teachers in my department are setting great examples of this and I am excited to learn from them this year.
As the school year continues, I look forward to crossing more items off of my list and re-evaluating and creating more items and goals. I wish my fellow classmates luck as we take this final year on together. Keep an eye out for more posts! Who knows, maybe posting will become a regular occurrence for me.
Meagan
ReplyDeleteI am so happy to experience the last year of our program with you and the rest of our awesome community. I LOVE the layout and design of your blog, it seems like a very relaxing place. In reading what you had already accomplished I felt like a bone head because I have yet to meet my school principle, however I am familiar with our schools security officer. This is for good reasons hahaha, he set me up with an ID badge and parking pass.
Looking at your goals I see that we share a few common interests (which I'm sure as time progresses and we get to know each other better it will grow to more than a few things in common). One of them being the idea that there is always room for improvement. As I was reading our blog I thought about how fun that statement would be if it were the name of my classroom; my classroom is the room for improvement. The second was your goal to create a safe space for your students. I often forget to make that a goal of mine because I can be presumptuous at times and I think I am already creating the safe environment. However, I think you are right in making that a goal because it is something you need to make a conscious effort to accomplish. So, thank you for reminding me of this goal and its importance!!!
I look forward to the rest of the year learning and growing with/from you!
Love this idea for a classroom name -- room for improvement. Good idea, Katie!
DeleteMeagan,
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you are focusing on getting organized, because this is something that I need to dedicate myself to doing this semester as well! Something that I have started so far is keeping all of my papers, notes, documents, etc. in a student-teaching folder so that I can always have that handy. I take it to my placement everyday, and I also bring it to class. This helps you to be able to keep everything together and helps keep important documents safe.
I loved reading your blog/goals and I look forward to learning more alongside you and the rest of our classmates during this semester and the semester to come.
Thank you for sharing!
Kudos to you, Meagan, for already building relationships with other English teachers and your school’s administrative team. I applaud your courage and initiative! Thanks also for sharing Shelby Denhof’s post on her first year of teaching. Looking forward to more energizing posts on your blog!
ReplyDelete