While some of you may have just gotten out of school, it’s time for me to share my teacher goals for this coming school year! It’s hard to believe that I only have a few weeks of summer left! This year I will be in a new school and a new district, so my goals may change as I get accustomed to the new kids and school culture, but I think it’s important to go in with intentions that help me be a better teacher. Here are mine for the 2019-2020 school year:
- Create a welcoming environment.
- Build community in my classroom.
- Collect data efficiently.
- Have FUN!
Create a Welcoming Environment
I want kids to feel invited and happy to be in my room. I want them to know that it is a safe space, that it is good to take risks, and it’s okay to fail or to be imperfect.
For this, I have decorations to help make the room more colorful, and am planning out bulletin boards to help promote growth mindset and music. I have SO MANY BULLETIN BOARDS (and, unpopular opinion, bulletin boards are not my favorite thing ever so I tend to do decorations that can stay up all year!) so I have a lot of space for decorations and color! I’ll be sure to do a full tour once it’s all done!
Build Community
I teach music, so I have PK-2 twice per week for 25 minutes and 3-5 for 55 minutes. My goal is to learn all the students’ names and get to know each child for who they are. What do they love outside of music? Who do they play with at recess and on the weekends? What do they want to learn more about in music? I always say that building relationships is my #1 classroom management tip, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the job! Part of the reason I absolutely love Genius Hour is that I get the chance to get to know the kids better!
That being said, part of building a community will be adapting to the community that has already been built that I am coming in to. As I get to know new teachers and students, I will need to find my place in it all.
Collect Data Efficiently
This always seems to make it on my goals list, because I’ve never found a system that works great. For this year, I made my Indiana Data Collection sheets. It will be great to type in the students’ names one time and have it for all of the standards. Two pages front and back make it easy to keep everything in one binder at the front of the room.
Have FUN!
With all the paperwork, testing, and hustle it can be sometimes hard to remember why we’re there. Have fun with the kids! Play, laugh, and enjoy the time you have with them, because that time flies by. You won’t have these kids forever, and you want them to remember the good times and the fun you had as well as the amazing things they learned!
So tell me in the comments- what are your teacher goals for this year?
