Another year is ending and I am linking up with Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher for her year end linky party. I have 3 school days left with my kinders and 4 days left for me.
I am reflecting on how this school year has gone. There have been things that went well and things that haven't went so well. This was my first year back in kindergarten after being in first grade for 3 years so much of the curriculum had changed.
What Worked:
1) Collaborating with colleagues through blogging - Creating this blog and meeting such fabulous blogging teachers has helped me become a better teacher to my kinders. I have found tons of fabulous ideas to use in my classroom and am constantly trying out new things thanks to the wonderful ideas on these blogs.
2) My teaching binder - I loved having all my things together in one place. I could look back at previous weeks lesson plans, look at my calendar and standards all in one place. It also made it easier for me to meet with my grade level teachers and plan activities.
3) My kinders learning - I am amazed at the growth my kinders made this year. While we were working on memory books over the past few weeks, we pulled out work from the beginning of the school year and so many of my kinders were writing their names backward and only about half of the letters. Now they are writing complete sentences and stories! It is simply amazing to see their growth!!
What Didn't Work:
1) Guided reading - Every year I say that I want to do more with guided reading to make it better. It is really hard to feel like I do enough in my guided reading groups in kindergarten. I feel like there is always more that I could do to improve this time during my day.
2) Time spent working on my classroom outside of the school day - This year has been one of my worst since my first year because I have had to create/recreate so many of the games and activities my team members already had. I wish I could have gotten everything done in a timely manner. This has caused some stress in my home life.
3) Our schedule - This is not entirely my fault. Our principal sets up our basic daily schedule (special area, lunch, recess, etc.) every year before school begins and then we have to plan for the times we are in our classroom. This year we had special area at 9:20 am and then lunch immediately following at 10:15 am. Then we had the entire afternoon in our classrooms. This was VERY hard on my very young kinders. They couldn't sit still for this large block of time. I am praying for a different schedule for next year.
So there are my 3 things that worked and my 3 things that didn't work. I would love to hear what worked and didn't work for you this year.
