Earlier, I shared with you what my students think I should Keep, Change, Start, and Stop. After reading through their suggestions, I decided to make my own resolutions to keep, change, start, and stop in three areas.
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Interactive Notebooks
KEEP the notebooks at the center of everything we do in class.
CHANGE how much practice ends up in the notebook. In the past, I've had students do a problem or two in their notebooks and then moved to dry erase boards for the rest of the practice. This means that the practice problems in the notebook tend to be much easier than the problems on the quizzes. This was a big request of my students. They want more worked examples to look back at.
START letting students use their notebooks on their quizzes. I've done this in the past on occasion. I've found that I tend to let students use their notebooks when they come into reassess a skill. Why shouldn't I just let them use it in the first place??? Maybe this means students will take more ownership of their notebooks if they know they get to use it on the quizzes.
STOP stressing over table of contents and page numbering. Let the kids make the notebooks their own.
SBG Grading System
KEEP making students redo all quizzes until they make an A or a B.
CHANGE the structure of my quizzes. More quizzes. Fewer questions. I want my quizzes to have a uniform look throughout the year.
START and end the year with the same policy on homework. No switching gears half way through the year.
STOP letting students retake a quiz right away. Make them do something to earn the right to retake a quiz.
Classroom Management/Discipline
KEEP communicating with parents and my principal. I actually started doing an okay job with this at the end of this past year. Now, I just need to do it from the start of the year!
CHANGE how I deal with whole-class misbehavior. I'm pretty good at dealing with a student or two who are doing something they shouldn't. I struggle, though, when my entire class seems to not be able to shut their mouths when I am trying to teach. I need to come up with a plan for this and be adamant about following it from DAY ONE!
START focusing on just a couple of things I want to get better at. I need to pick 2 or 3 rules and enforce those every single day. I have a habit of wanting to make 15 changes with classroom management. I end up keeping none of them because it's way too overwhelming.
STOP putting up with cell phone use at inappropriate times.