New Year New You

 

It's a new year and time to reassess and get ready for the road to the finish line. As teachers, you constantly help your students work towards their learning goals and targets.  But have you ever stopped to think about how important it is for your to set goals for yourself too? When you are working at your highest level of performance there is a great likelihood that your productivity(achievement) will go up also.  Consider how you could use your time most effectively and move toward higher capacity in teaching and learning.  

You have been given more time to use as you please to meet the achievement goals of our school improvement plan. You can use it to meet the variety of demands that are placed on you each day.  Please consider these items as you begin to plan your time.

1. Collaborate with your peers:  Remember that teaching is complicated and each of your classrooms are unique.  Working together with your team allows for sharing the load.
2. Lesson Planning:  When you are precisely planned your day is a smooth as glass.  You know what to expect and are able to spend your cognitive energy on supporting individual students rather than working to figure out what is next in a sequence from the resource.
3. Data Entry and Analysis:  It is important that we are able to predict how kids will do on standardized testing as well as notice when students are falling behind grade level expectations.  Entering your data each week (DFA) and month (CFA) allows your team to analyze the results and make decisions on universal instruction and intervention.
4. Professional Learning Communities (PLC):  Professional development is the big gear that drives our improvement efforts. It give you the opportunity to learn new and efficient ways to teach that will result in higher achievement.  Renew your focus with your team.  Make sure you have taken the time to build consensus around your agenda.  Your time is valuable and you need to make the most of it.  Plan to learn from one another. Create lessons and units that allow you to appreciate and get a deeper understanding of curriculum.  Share effective implementation strategies that are making the difference with students.
5. Classroom Culture: Take some time this week, now that testing is over, to review your classroom expectations and procedures.  Reteaching and potentially relaunching how and what to do in your classroom is essential to a smooth winter and productive spring.

You'll give yourself your best shot at success if you set a goal that doable--and meaningful too.