Questions to Ask Yourself To Make Things Better In Your Classroom
The time is quickly looming, if it hasn’t already arrived. It is time to put real pants back on, my friends! Gone are the long lunches, bathroom visits taken on a whim, late mornings and wearing pajamas all day. While this break is at an end, I hope you had the opportunity to participate in one of the most powerful teaching tools at your disposal: reflection.
The two overarching questions I ask myself as I reflect on my teaching and classroom environment are these:
- What isn’t working the way I want it to?
- How can I make my life easier?
When examining what isn’t working, I know I need to step back and try to think about it with my ego in check. I get so excited to try something I believe to be a simply brilliant idea. When it goes south, I become frustrated and take it personally. This attitude is unhelpful moving forward. Here are some more pointed questions to ask when reflecting on what I consider to be failures.
Is the idea still a good one? Did I not take enough time to get the students on board with it? Was it bad timing? I had a great, interactive review activity all prepared for my students to do one day. Unfortunately, one of my students was having a really rough day and had a meltdown at the beginning of the review. I really wanted this activity to happen, so I forced it along, even though the students were not ready to participate after witnessing the meltdown. As a result of the disaster that followed, I put this type of review in the file cabinet in my brain labeled, “things that don’t work.” Thankfully, after some reflection, I decided to try again when the students were more receptive. The review style I introduced became a very successful experience for all of us when I chose the right time.
Another question to ask myself involves pacing. Am I moving too fast? This is a problem I face pretty regularly. My brain moves along like a freight train when I get an idea of something to do with my students. As a result, I want them to speed along with me instead of taking the time to scaffold and structure the experience so that all my students can board that train with me. Again, my idea may be sound, but I am moving too quickly for my students to follow and participate.
Have I given my paras enough information for them to help make our time together a success? After working with the same wonderful women for 9 years, I expect them to read my mind. They know me so well, can’t they just know what I want? Alas, no. Some instances of “failure” in my classroom can be put down to me not preparing my paras by giving them specific instructions, expectations or background knowledge of the material. Or, I give them brief instructions on the fly and expect them to fill in the blanks without having the opportunity to ask me questions.
Sometimes strategies or activities just aren’t right for a particular group. Working with a self-contained group of students accessing general education curriculum through pre-requisite skills requires CONSTANT adaptation and honing of instruction. To be quite honest, not every group is ready for the same material. There are times a favorite lesson has to be be put aside because it isn’t right for the group in front of me. That’s ok. I can bring it out when the time is right.
Besides reflecting on what isn’t working, I like to focus on how I can make my life easier. What is taking way too much of my limited time? Is there any way I can have someone else do part of the task? Is there a way to make it more streamlined? Automated?
Here is an example of one way I made my life easier. I had to let go of how I had “always done it.” I used to set up Google Forms for each student to help with progress monitoring toward IEP goals. In our district, we write four objectives to help meet the goal. We report on progress toward these objectives during each 9 weeks. As a result, I was updating the forms each 9 weeks with the new objective to ensure I was gathering the right data. This was an absolute nightmare for my paras to help with. I also spent hours looking at different forms and sorting through the resulting spreadsheet to get accurate information. I was emotionally attached to this method because I came up with it and was proud of it. But it wasn’t working. I needed to make my life easier. My intelligent daughter asked if there was any way I could have everyone’s data in one document. After some reflection, I realized that I could! And that was the beginning of the giant spreadsheet model I still use today. I had to be willing to let go of what I had always done in order to see how to make my life easier.
Another way to make my life easier is to find ways to have my students be in charge of tasks. We do a morning meeting each day that requires a bit of a reset in order to ensure all students get turns to participate in each area. One of my students absolutely loved resetting morning meeting when she arrived at school. She felt special and helpful and she took something off of my to do list. What a win!
I hope you have had the time for some real reflection during the break. Reflection is the first step toward change for the better. May your classrooms be places where your instruction, assessment and interaction with students and paras always be improving!
Happy New Year!
