One of the things I love about the end of the school year is the ability to think about how I will adjust things for next year so that I can a better result. I don’t see this as a negative thing at all, but an opportunity to refine what needs refining and reinforce what needs to stay!
The one question I ask myself this time of year is this: What can I do to make next year more fruitful? Because here’s the thing: I’m not into doing things just to do them. I want to do them because they WORK! (And by “work,” I mean “get results” – don’t confuse that!)
The one thing I always come back to in my own teaching is how I can improve the overall form of how we do work in the classroom. Even though I’ve always been a pretty strong classroom manager, I always come back to efficiency in my teaching and management because I KNOW that my teaching success is built on my management success. That remains to be true every single year!
So, in this vein, I want to share with you a list that I review (and share!) again and again myself. This is a shortlist of the routines or habits I have to put in place management-wise so that I can squeeze every single bit of my teaching power.
I would love some ideas for managing some of these routines. I teach fifth grade. 🙂