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Teaching With a Mountain View

A Few Wins, A Few Whoops 😅: Reflecting on the 25-26 School Year

Published about 1 month ago • 3 min read

Hi Reader,

Now that I'm a few weeks out from the end of the school year, I've had some time to think about what went really well this year that I want to make sure I do again, and I wanted to share them with you, just in case you are slowly collecting ideas for next year.

🗣️ I'd LOVE to hear from you!

Do you have a big win from this year that I can share with others? I would absolutely LOVE to learn from you and share what went really well for you this year. Simply reply to this email with your wins, and I'll feature some (with credit) soon!

Mary

👩‍🏫 Academic and Instructional Wins

When I started thinking about my biggest instructional wins, three quickly came to mind for their standout performance in both engagements and growth! Keep an eye out this summer because I'm building on these practices in preparation for next year!

  • ​Morphology Integration: I regularly implemented Morphology Minutes this year, and it was a TOTAL game-changer.
  • ​Graphic Novels: I spent a lot of time finding the perfect graphic novel to teach this year. The engagement was unmatched.
  • ​Enrichment Binders: I'm still going strong with enrichment binders for my above-level learners! This post shares what I include.

❤️ Classroom Community Wins

These are a few of my favorite tried-and-true ways to build community in my classroom and "manage" my classroom. I did each of these this year, and I'll continue to do them next year (and forevermore?).
  • ​Worry Stones: I am obsessed with using these worry stones instead of regular fidgets.
  • ​Morning Meeting: I really loved my morning meeting routine this year. I ended up using the Getting to Know You Back to School Task Cards ALL year as discussion/sharing prompts, and they were super fun! You can see them in my little pink school bus in the picture on the left.
  • ​Weekly Letter Writing: I have done this every single year I've been teaching. I learned about it from my cooperating teacher when I was a student teacher, and it builds the BEST relationships (and writing skills, too!)

💗 Character Education Wins

I have really placed character education at the forefront of my classroom. That doesn't mean we have "SEL Time" every day (that's actually not best practice), and it doesn't mean I tell students we are constantly working on their personal growth. However, you will find it showing up in little ways all the time. Here are some of my Character Education WINS from this year!

  • ​Personal Growth with Picture Books: I ended up doing about 25 personal growth lessons with picture books! Hooray! I love it when students reference them throughout the year.
  • ​Accomplishment Animals: I just added a huge new blog post about this, including rationale and examples of how I integrate it!
  • ​Goal Setting: This was actually my formal evaluation goal this year, and I love how it turned out! I'll be sharing even more about this later this summer, so you can implement it, but having my students start the year setting their One Word "goal," and their Personal Growth Goal was amazing. We reflected on progress three times during the year, and I loved watching them grow! Grab the One Word book now so you have it all ready to go next year -- it ALWAYS sells out at the beginning of the school year.

🤷‍♀️ This Year's Whoops! 😉

🎉WIN: Finished my second Master's degree.
​🤭WHOOPS: Immediately started looking for another project.

🎉WIN: Finally made it to summer break.
​🤭WHOOPS: Already have 17 tabs open for next school year.

🎉WIN: My students grew so much this year.
​🤭WHOOPS: I still have no idea where all the pencils went.

🎉WIN: Made a solid summer reading list.
​🤭WHOOPS: Also bought six more books than I can realistically read.

🎉WIN: I've gotten much better at protecting my peace.
​🤭WHOOPS: I still think about awkward conversations from 2017.

🎉WIN: I've accepted that I can't do everything.
​🤭WHOOPS: I still occasionally try.

PO Box 3581, Monument, CO 80132
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Teaching With a Mountain View

Mary Montero

I am a teacher who loves sharing research-based practices, resources, books, and more!

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