It’s the end of the school year already, at last. My students have taken the teacher survey, and the self assessment survey. My grades are in and report cards are being printed. My desk is (almost) as clean as the first day of school and I’m slowly stripping my bulletin boards bare. I’ve created the tech budget and arranged for ordering. I’ve updated my goals for the past year and reported on accomplishments to my supervisor. So now’s a good time to reflect, and plan for next year.
Celebrating
- relationships with colleagues and our ability to talk through the challenges we faced this year
- my transition to Japan and to a new school and how (fairly) smooth it’s been
- my work towards changing the school culture so that I am a teaching partner to help teachers integrate technology (where appropriate)
- acquisition of a middle school laptop cart – solved most issues with scheduling conflicts
- my relationship with a great PLN
- my work with the tech committee (we did a lot this year including having some great conversations)
- great kids
- supportive administrators
Planning for next year
Working with teachers
- arrange more teacher pd during the school day (during prep times and release time)
- make sure every teacher knows the NETS standards
- attend planning meetings, particularly at the beginning of a new unit
- refine NETS standards for our school (working with colleagues/admin/students)
- solidify team with librarian
Working with students
- take more time building community within the classroom (not just at the beginning of the year)
- use classroom bulletin boards to identify student strengths and interests (students can add or I can add)
- find ways to further engage students in the own PLN’s (diigo, kidblog, wiki, google sites)
- create a formal (but flexible) schedule for meeting with collaborative groups working on class projects
- allocate more time for projects than I think they will take (important to allow time for segues and new inquiries)
- arrange parent tech nights (get student volunteers to help or integrate with classes)
- publish a tech tips/tools newsletter (get student involvement)
- pilot 3 iPads in early childhood
- pilot convertible classmate PC’s in elementary
Work on systems
- Set time aside each week to work on Powerschool
- Support colleagues’ work with Rubicon Atlas
- Help with Apple Wiki Server setup as needed
Professional development
- ed chat
- blogs
- nings
- tech/school/school library journals
- elluminate events
- learning 2010 conference in Shanghai
- JSCD conferences (ASCD in Japan)
- tinkering time
I’ve got my work cut out for me during my summer “holidays”. If I want to be balanced next year, I’m going to have to be very efficient so I’ll take some time this summer thinking and implementing my organization system so that I can get this list (which I’m sure is incomplete) accomplished next school year. Advice and suggestions are welcome.
I am simply amazed at how closely my reflection matches yours, as I was reading it, I truly thought…wait, did I forget that I wrote this post? 🙂 Incredible things are happening in schools around the world and it is neat to see just how much overlap we have here, how much the of an opportunity to support each other and think together.