#1 Start using raffle tickets again: once a day for a piece of candy, once a week for the "treasure chest." I have noticed that this year I have moved more toward the negative and strayed from the positive. I need to go back to the positive. The kids love the raffle, and they are super motivated by food. Why not use this to my advantage?
#3 Reward academic goals with food! Enough said.
#4 Grade at least 1/2 of papers the day they are turned in, this will lower my stress level by about 50%. I'm going to be able to reuse so many of my lesson plans this year, and grading was where I really fell behind (as always!). Next year, I need to get them back sooner so that we can discuss them and I can give them feedback. (PS - I'm using an actual gradebook next year instead of the stupid charts!).
#5 Create a web site for the class (facebook? Shutterfly? Suggestions?)
#6 Go to more extracurricular activities.
#7 Start Independent Conferencing with kids during silent reading. I have always done this in the past and this year I have let it fall to the wayside. Time to get back in the groove of things.
#8 Incorporate more vocabulary into my instruction. Not quite sure how to do this most effectively, but this was the area that they were lagging the most in their NWEA scores. Prefixes, suffixes, root words and using context clues . . . not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it must be done.
#9 Start celebrating not just the kids' achievements, but the kids themselves (i.e. birthdays, special occasions, etc).#10 Incorporate 1 "Habit of Mind" into instruction every two weeks. This will be a focus of both of our classes and will be involved with everything. Create a poster to put on the wall each week, and as the kids see us doing these things they will add to the poster.
I think that's enough for now, maybe even too much. I have big hopes for next year, and hopefully I won't have to work quite as hard as I did this year :-)
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