Today I begin the challenge of reflectively blogging for the next 30 days. This is just the sort of thing I need to jump-start my year and reignite my blog.
The prompt for today is to outline some of my goals for this school year. This challenge was particularly interesting since one of my big goals is becoming a more reflective practitioner. Too often I make changes in my teaching without taking stock of what is already working. I have a tendency to push forward without giving much mind to what has happened before. This year I would like to slow down, make sure the assignments I'm giving are meeting the objectives I have set, and in doing so, working smarter, not harder.
The other goal I have for this year is to increase my parent/school communication. I have always been very good at keeping an open door for parents, but I've never been particularly good at making first contact and continuing that contact throughout the year. The students in my urban building have family members who made a conscious choice to send his or her child to us. One of the big selling points is parent communication. Thus, I need to do better on my end of things. With that in mind, over the next two days I'm going to call all of my students' families and make that first, crucial step. Open House is coming up--maybe if they get early enough notice they will be able to make it.
So, there it is. My first blog of the new school year. I'm optimistic that this one will be one of the best yet.
Parent contact has always been a struggle for me too - I am more than happy to work with any parent who reaches out to me, but I have not been the best about making the first move. Hoping my postcards assist with that this year as well.
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