Halfway through the year, and I am ready to set a few goals moving forward.
Run a more student centered classroom
During the first part of the year, I tried to run my show. There wasn't a whole lot of student choice in activities, assignments, expectations, and more. This came back to bite me several times with some student defiance and lack of morale/motivation. Starting on Monday, when we get back, we are formulating "social contracts" for classroom conduct. We will have some variety in assignment and practice methods as well.
Move and Do!
We sit and do wayyyyyyy to much pencil and paper work in the room. The kids have to be moving and tackling problems with a more hands on approach. Luckily, I have a few ideas and lessons to incorporate this (should appear on a blog post in the near future!).
Spend more time planning and reflecting
To often I've fallen into the planning trap of "I found an activity, cool!" and just rolling with it. Not spending the time to tweak, time out, and reflect on the activity has left me with questionable results. Lack of reflection has burnt me on successful lessons too. Telling myself "That went well!" and forgetting about it has left me without some important info.
Be more "DR"
DR - Developmentally Responsive - is a term I learned in my middle level theory in college. It's realizing that my 6th graders are young adolescents with unique needs. Most of what I have mentioned above falls into this category, but I could always do more to help them express themselves, work together, and much more
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