And I am now heading into my own summer where I hope to achieve at least a part of the reflection I have asked my students to do. Elaine Plybon wrote so truthfully about the reality of a teacher's summer, so I wonder what I will have actually achieved by summer's end. But I have spent this school year really thinking about my teaching, something the luxury of years of old lessons at my fingertips has allowed me not to always do. And reflection is to me the single most important piece of being a good teacher. None of us are perfect, and no lesson is perfect, no matter how well it goes. We ask our students to learn and grow, and we must do the same.
So, here are my goals for my reflection this summer:
- I will revisit lesson planning by reading Understanding by Design
- I will figure out how to add The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to my AP class to add some reading level challenge that I think is lacking
- I will read 2 novels about other cultures (still deciding what these are!)
- I will research the writing approach, 6 Traits of Writing
- I will keep my blog current and keep up with everyone on Twitter
Now that I have written them down, I have to do them! What are your reflection goals for the summer?
Thanks to twitter, I just discovered your blog and passed it on to our English Department. I have added you to my google reader account.
ReplyDeleteehelfant: Thanks for finding me and spreading my blog to other English teachers.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in your summer endeavors - hopefully my blog post will give you motivation to prove me wrong! Even if you don't accomplish it all, you'll learn something in the process of attempting it! Have a great summer!
ReplyDeleteeplybon: I will let you know if I have broken the teaching curse of the summer :)
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