Reflection of the school year

Every educator should reflect about the previous school year. You think about what you did right, what you did wrong, what needs to be improved, what needs to stay in your curriculum or get rid of some boring activity or project, etc. Reflection helps you to grow as a teacher.

My school year has been rather dramatic as a whole. First we had no contract for two years and then the budget cuts/teacher lay offs in January. However, I still had to put a smile on my face every single day and continue to teach and do the best job that I knew how to do.

I taught two new courses this year. The local history class was a challenge since I'm not a native New Englander but my students were resilient and patient with me and stuck by me. The students helped to create new projects for the course which was fun. I even did one field trip. I'm hoping to increase the field trips for the course this next school year. And, the best part: I'm going to incorporate service learning into the curriculum so my students will be working with one of the local historical homes and doing some joint projects and activities.

The second course I taught this year I helped co-write the curriculum. Current World Affairs was definitely a work in progress but again the students were patient and understanding and worked through the curriculum with me. Next school year, I won't be teaching the CWA class but I feel that I left the curriculum in great shape.

I had my 9th grade World History classes fill out a teacher evaluation on the last day of school. I asked that they not put their name on the sheet and to be HONEST. Some of the comments were interesting:
*Loved the PowerPoints - short and to the point!
*Too many PowerPoints - too long and too much note taking!
*Loved the projects.
*Favorite unit: French Revolution.
*Favorite unit: World War I and II.
*Spent too much time in the Middle Ages.
*Suggestion: Prepare us more for the seven page research paper - like have mini papers prior to the big paper.
*Suggestion: Field trips
*More projects
*NO more projects
*Group projects
*More hands-on activities.
*End of year party??????
*You were my favorite teacher.
*I looked forward to coming to class every day - you are ONE crazy lady! :-)

Some students even thanked me for teaching them and wished they could have me next year. I didn't get one bad comment so I don't know if that's good or bad. I'd like to think they were being honest with me. And, I don't read the evaluations until after grades are submitted (this was stated to them and I typed it on the sheet).

Regarding World History curriculum, the other three History teachers and I decided that we will be eliminating the first quarter of curriculum. The middle school is supposed to be teaching it (they don't teach it - they teach whatever they want) so we decided that in order for us to get past World War II next year, we need to eliminate the first half of the World History curriculum. The good news (this is questionable good news) is that our state does not test on World History (I guess knowing World History isn't that important) but they do test on US History. And, considering the role of the United States in History during the 20th century, we figured it would be important to support the US History curriculum to get as far to the present day as possible.

We will start with the Middle Ages and work our way to the present day by the end of the school year. I would like us to start at the Enlightenment but baby steps shall be made with the curriculum. We shall see if we can handle this massive goal -

A goal of mine for next year is to continue to work on pacing. I'm terrible at it. I barely made it to World War II by the end of the school year so I know that I need to stay on task and pace my way through the curriculum. The other World History teachers and I struggle with the pacing so it's reassuring that I'm not the only one but we all agree that we need to make some changes for next school year.

And, we still have no formal/written World History curriculum. My colleague and I spent our duty block working on some of the curriculum units toward the end of the school year but we still need to get more completed. There was no money to actual pay us this summer to write curriculum so it looks like we may do the same thing next school year during our duty.

So, overall, the school year was dramatic, busy, stressful, and productive for the most part.

I would give myself a B+ for the school year. :-)