New Beginnings

      We start back to school in a weeks time, and after one year in the classroom - time which flew by in the blink of an eye. I am relieved to not be AS new, and AS entirely clueless about what being a teacher actually means, and requires of you. My university courses and practicum experiences never mentioned the insanity actually required to do this job! :)

      I am looking forward to going back to my classroom, meeting new students, and facing the new challenges that the year will bring. I love the idea of getting a fresh start, and the benefit of teaching is that a fresh start exists with every new class you receive. We have built in opportunity to change, and grow, and experiment, with the methodologies and practices that we utilize within the classroom, & the opportunities for growth excite me.

      In my reflections back on the year prior, I am dissatisfied with the amount of professional reflecting I did on the classroom, my experiences, and general pedagogy contemplation. I spent the summer entirely redoing my Language Arts year plan as I finished the year feeling so inadequate about myself in regards to writing instruction and small group management. As well as modifying and adjusting all of my plans for the other subjects I teach as well, and changing the functional layout of my classroom.

      I've maintained a personal blog before, as well as a classroom blog for my students and parents. However a blog focused entirely on the profession of teaching, mainly for my own reflective practices seems like a wise idea. I especially like the idea due to the seemingly sparse amount of middle school blogs I've been able to find on the internet.

     With the idea of reflective practices in mind, I am setting some goals for myself on here.

• Post at the very minimum - once weekly. I'd ideally like to post more frequently, but I am also aware of just how busy life gets when you are occupied with school & maintaining a life outside the classroom.

• Positivity, my posts should be realistic and reflective changes and areas of growth in a positive manner.

• Assessment, I need to reflect on my assessment practices more frequently as well.