Yearly Reflections

(Today’s post is for the letter Y in the A-Z challenge.)

As the end of the school year looms closer, I would highly recommend everyone do a reflection about their year. This is the best way to grow each year and as a teacher, I never stop learning. Each year I learn more about myself, about my students, about the way I teach and also about the way that I shouldn’t teach. Each year as I grow, I need to adjust my way of thinking and my way of teaching. Each year when I learn new strategies, I need to see how I can apply them to my teaching in order to be more successful in the classroom.

1. Here are some questions that I ask myself each year (sometimes halfway through the year too):

2. What are the successful happenings of the year?

3. What made them successful?

4. What things did not work this year and why?

5. What things would I do differently?

6. What things did the students enjoy the most and why?

7. What things did the students not enjoy and why?

8. What new strategies did I learn this year?

9. How did I apply them to my teaching this year?

10. How can I use them next year?

11. What were my strengths this year?

12. What were my weaknesses?

13. How can I improve my teaching skills next year?

14. What teachers do I need to observe who seem more successful with their students than me?

15. What is something I want to learn for next year?

By keeping a journal each year of these answers, I’m actually able to see the growth that I am making. It is also motivating to me when I can see how far that I have come from when I first started keeping this journal.

What questions do you think I should add to this? Do you do something like this? What procedure do you follow to monitor your yearly reflections? Please share.

Image: 'vertical sunset 2'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14279081@N08/7035849465