Friday, December 10, 2010

Key Reflections on My Last Year of Teaching

As an educator who is continuously trying to improve, this question about how I could have improved is one that quite often rises to the surface. The advisory that I took over was undoubtedly the most challenging group of students that I have ever had the pleasure of teaching and I learned so much through this experience. I believe that I could have been more organized that year and really demand more excellence from my students. Other teachers who saw this advisory operate last year would consistently note, that "Wow, your students are really improving since last year." I believe that while they did improve both academically and socially, I could have demanded even greater work from them and learned different ways to motivate each and every student. But looking back this was a tall order as many of my students were both lacking in self-confidence and the skills necessary to achieve personally and academically let alone function as a group. In some ways, I think I began the year placing too much emphasis on developing positive relationships rather than strict academics. It’s a very thin line and I think I felt I had to be careful in my approach. But looking back I think this group would have responded well to not backing down on assignments but I think I could have done a much better job of breaking down larger tasks into smaller more manageable parts, such as the autobiography. I think I could have been more creative with consequences in dealing with this group. There were other resources in the building and in the community that could have reached my students. Although I did have a local advocate come into the classroom to speak with the kids about the importance of school, I think I just barely scratched the surface. I think I could have had more parents come in and speak to the advisory about their performance and what kind of steps they could take to take school more seriously.

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