Reflections on the 2018-19 School Year

In May, language arts teacher and author Pernille Ripp wrote a blog post called What Did You Want to Be This Year.   I vowed to write my own.

Today I pulled the three pages of notes I made last summer with the title "Keep Your Focus" that I used as my outline for the year.

Short answer: I did pretty well.

In May 2018 I had looked at my reading class and thought, "I have not helped them become readers." Thus, my mission over the summer became one of figuring out how to make that a reality.  I read extensively, created a plan, sold the plan to my reading coach, administration, and reading department, and when the school year began we were ready.

The plan was simple: allow 10 minutes of free reading time in every reading class, as well as during the lunchtime period which has extra time built into it.  Reading teachers taught readers how to make a goal for their reading, our media specialists took time to make sure all classrooms had books available, and we were off and running.

It worked way better than I ever anticipated. The kids bought in immediately. It was like they were waiting!  In fact, the biggest complaint I heard over and over again was that they weren't getting ENOUGH time to read their own books.

Winning!

But back to the purpose of this post -- to reflect on my success in being who I set out to be.


I have five categories that I reflected on to prep this blog.  Here is how I fared:

I wanted to be focused on what was most important: What this means is the emphasis on independent reading, goal setting, and some standard classroom activities that set the right tone. In general, I stuck with this. There was only a short period of time during 2nd quarter when I got a bit off my focus, but in general I remembered what was important.  Sacred reading time. That alone made for a calmer classroom.  And a calmer teacher!

When stressed slow down: This mostly came after I went through my 2nd quarter blitz when I was trying to cram in too much. I happened upon a book called We Got This: Equity Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be by Cornelius Minor. His wise words helped me get much more purposeful about my approach to everything: conducting class, assessing, grading, and relationships. It caused me to write a new mission statement based on the acronym BRIDGE:

Build relationships
Illuminate discovery
Generate expression

Once I had this formula, I knew better what to do in every moment.  I will be revisiting Minor's book before school begins again to be sure that I am implementing as many of his ideas as possible for a successful 19-20.

Get feedback from the classes: With Pernille's insistence, I made sure I was surveying my readers as much as possible to be up to date on what they were thinking about our class.  I then made sure they knew I HEARD their concerns, and we adjusted each class accordingly. This is one of the simplest things a teacher can do, yet in the past I didn't always take the time. Now I know it IS the most important work.

As good as surveys are, I think I will be implementing more class meetings as well this coming year.  Minor has a very short version that gives just a few minutes for kids to express concerns. I am committed to this as a way to keep updated on a more regular basis.  Our classes meet every other day, so I will probably put the meetings on Fridays when we have class.

Create space: It was the glitch in 2nd quarter and the Minor book that made me realize I had to create more space for readers to share their reading experiences.  I hadn't actually made a plan for that, so at the beginning of 3rd quarter I implemented "Reading Fridays" as a way to be sure we connected as readers. This took a variety of forms: watching and responding to videos about the benefits of reading, playing games like CLUMP to share our books, making one-pagers and writing book reviews, and letting our reading coach take a day to have the kids make recommendation tags for the library.  This is a must to kick off at the beginning of the next school year. Class meeting then reading day.  Perfect.

Reduce technology: For several years we had required computer programs for reading, places to go to assess or build skills.  I thankfully was able to set that aside this year. I don't think anyone missed it, and the work we were doing in class, be it independent reading or any of our activities, were obviously more valuable than mindlessly going through a computer program. Through a variety of formative assessments, personal observation, and self-reporting by readers, I could see that all classes grew as thinkers and readers.


PLANS FOR NEXT SCHOOL YEAR

My experience this year -- which created a less stressful environment for me, even though I was teaching four preps -- left me with some energy at the end of the year to begin to think about how we can build on the foundation we began this year. I'm working closely with my partner teacher and reading coach to move toward more directed standards-based learning and grading, as well as deeper instruction in research. We determined as a team that research skills are lacking in our students, and it is time to reclaim what we used to do. The AP for our Reading Dept. has great ideas for this, and will lead us in the right direction. I find this very exciting!

Writing is also going to become a greater part of what we do. I meant for it to be included more last year, but when I ran into roadblocks, I didn't take the time or energy to figure out how to fix the problem. I am being more proactive on writing this year, as it will be implemented more strongly from the start.

Many of our reading teachers are interested in the Global Read Aloud, and we are preparing for it as well.  The community of educators I have met online via Pernille's page as well as the GRA page keep me motivated and hopeful. There are teachers all over the world who believe in their mission and are putting everything into it. I am proud to stand in solidarity with them.  If our readers can be part of a GLOBAL reading community, how much more importance it will hold.  It also may help us try new things like Flipgrid as a way to communicate with others. So many possibilities!

Final answer to the questions Was I who I wanted to be this year?  I'd say 85% of the the time.

Next year I'm shooting for 100% once again. I feel I have the support and the community around me I need to make this happen.  I have no doubt that by keeping my focus, getting feedback, creating space, and being more purposeful, I can succeed.

And nothing feels better than that!