Looking Forward to Next Year
Reflecting back on my first year at Arapahoe, I can think of a number of things that worked well for me this year and a countless number of things I want to improve upon next year. Now that our first year at Arapahoe is coming to a close and we have had the opportunity to learn a great deal about the school, the students, and the overall expectation for teachers, what are some of the changes you want to make next year? Is there something you tried this year that worked well and you will continue to do next year? Is there anything you experimented with at Arapahoe that didn’t work and you won’t try again next year? What do you look forward to most about having a “fresh” start next year as a “veteran” teacher?
posted by jhawthorne at 2:04 PM
9 Comments:
Every year is a learning experience and though I'm not returning to Arapahoe, I will take many lessons learned with me to my next place of employment. My experience at Arapahoe has helped me to solidify and clarify my beliefs and determine those things which are most important to me when working with students, families and other staff members. We all hope to leave a mark upon our work environment, to influence lives, and make a difference, and I hope that I have accomplished these things at Arapahoe. I hope to build upon my experiences and become a better counselor and a better person as a result of this year! Hopefully I will have fun being a "new" counselor once again!
I think the biggest thing I’ve had to overcome is getting to know “everything” about the school since I feel that my position requires this. I’m still learning about the curriculum taught in each of the departments, let alone who the teachers are. What I look forward to next year is “having a clue.” Sometimes you just have to live it to understand what something is like and being a part of the AHS staff an example of this. I feel that I might be a bit more credible to more of the staff and students simply by no longer being the “new guy.” Next year I hope to continue to visit departments and PLCs. At the same time, I hope to offer more special happenings in the library to spur interest.
I don’t know if I will ever be a “veteran” teacher. This past year was very challenging. Arapahoe is like no other school. At times it can be very demanding, not only from the administration, but also the curriculum and the students. Now that I have my feet wet, I am really looking forward to concentrating more on my classes and curriculum. The first year at AHS requires a lot of time and effort to just figure out what it means to be a “Warrior”. I have already changed many things that I did the first semester to the second semester. I have started to make decisions regarding next year. I want to hold the students more accountable for what they learn. I want to get away from a teacher’s centered room and move to a student centered room. I also want to get away from finding out if the student can complete assignments and find out what they really know, and can they use the knowledge properly. I want to challenge my students even more than I have this year. By being here at AHS, I challenged my students this year more than I ever have at my past schools.
It will be really nice to come back to the same position next year even though I will be teaching all new classes. This is the time of year when I always feel like I am catching on to things that I probably should have caught on to much earlier in the year. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to return to a position due to moving, long term sub positions, etc. Next year I'd like to hit the ground running with all the behavioral and organizational stuff that I had to scramble with in November of this year. I think that will really help me to cover more content with less of a struggle on my part and make the students more invested in their education. I'm also considering a cell phone box. This idea came to me during CSAPs when each day the students in my testing room came in and put their turned-off cell phones and i-pods in the top drawer of the teacher desk. I only had to ask the one time and after that they did it voluntarily first thing when they came into the room. It certainly cut down on the disruptions, and I think it would be a great thing for my classrooms next year.
Jeremy, thanks for giving us the opportunity to relect on this. I think the biggest thing I am looking forward to is not constantly feeling like a deer in the head lights. I think there is so much assumption built into a school like AHS. There are lots of emails and conversations to use phrases like, "it will be like last year" or "we will do it the same way". I am always wondering what that means and am frequently the person slowing down meetings to get clarification. The thing I am most excited about is knowing more of the kids. I really took for granted the relationships I had with students at my other school and sturggled this year being an unknown quatity. I am excited to see kids I know from this year, next year and to have an opportunity to reconnect with some of them.
I'm looking forward to not having to build my lessons from scratch- all the cutting and little baggies have drove me crazy!!!! I'm looking forward to trying new ideas with the material after seeing how some worked. I'm looking forward to students knowing me and what I am about. I think everyone is right when they say they spent most of the time figuring out the school. Having a deeper understanding of being a "warrior" definitely makes it easier. This will be my second year in the teaching profession so although they say it gets easier I won't believe it until I see it! I'm looking forward to going to Argentina this summer and bringing back lots of cool props for the classroom! The contact with the language reminds me of the reality of learning a foreign language and what will be most useful to the students. I find myself sometimes getting caught up in lesson planning and curriculum guides and what everyone else is doing in the office and have to remind myself that with what I teach in the classroom, I want it to be useful in real contexts. Its hard to explain...
I will definitely be a lot more comfortable coming into next year. I have a lot better idea on what is expected of me here and I know the students. I like a lot of the ideas and strategies that I used this year and of course I can think of more than a couple of things that I will want to change. I definitely want to continue to work on my management style. All in all I feel as though I have had a successful year. I will take a lot of positives out of my first year of teaching and I have learned a lot of great lesson that will make me a better teacher next year. I have a lot of thanks to give out to my department and other teachers in the building who helped me get through this year.
Next year, I'm looking forward to not being a "newbie" anymore! I'm excited to be able to take the work that I've done this year and make it better. I'm also excited about coming back to DECA with a little experience under my belt. This year, I didn't know anything more than my students did. That made it really difficult to prepare for competitions and plan for upcoming trips. I'm hoping that with more experience, next year will go a lot smoother!
I would agree with Jackie Price. I am most excited about getting to know more student/athletes. That is why we are all here.
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