I’m seeing all the “last day of school” posts coming through my feed now, and I’m thinking about how to wrap up the year with my team. As teachers, we naturally want to improve our craft all the time, so this is a great time to go through a reflection process. Just as our students reflect at the end of a unit to identify the successes and areas for improvement, we can think about how to make next year even better by looking back at our teaching and planning.
Here are some questions you might consider as you look back at the school year.
- What new things did I try this year that had a great impact on learning?
- What things did I try this year that were not so effective?
- How did my classroom routines work this year? Are there any routines that need an update?
- Were there any students who really changed in my class this year? Maybe there is a student who finally started engaging with music, or a child who made social progress through music. Perhaps there is a student who discovered a real love for music, or an instrument to study, from a classroom activity. Taking time to recognize the amazing transformations that happen in our classroom is a great way to refocus why we put up with a lot of the other stuff.
- What inspired my students the most?
- Did I have a good work/life balance?
- What are some ways I grew professionally this year?
- What caused me the most stress this year?
- What was a moment this year that made me feel inspired?
- Thinking about my most challenging student this year, what was it that made that student so challenging? What was that student’s unmet need, and how could I best meet it?
- What is something I want might want to look into over the summer? If you are anything like me, you have a dozen Pinterest boards about teaching. I get really overwhelmed with how many ideas there are, so I end up doing none of them. So this summer I’m going to pick ONE, learn all about that ONE thing, and actually follow it through. If you don’t have a Pinterest board for it yet, then this is a great time to start one! I’ve got one at the bottom to get you started.
- What is something I want to do less of next year?
- What was my most valuable learning this year?
What would you add to this list?
Almost summer: end-of-year reflection questions