It’s the time of the year all teachers look forward to! It’s the end of the school year! Time to celebrate and reflect. Here are some of the questions we reflect about:
Are these kids ready for the next grade?
How did they do on their state assessments?
What did I do that worked well this year?
What can I change about what I did for next year?
Where am I going to go on vacation?
There is so much work that needs to be done at the end of the school year. We need to get our rooms ready for the summer. Where is that checklist? We need to get our minds ready for the next school year. What are those goals? Where is my data?
I was a classroom teacher for 22 years before I became an instructional coach. In this role, my reflection and relaxation are not the same as it was when I was in the classroom. At our school, we have already started looking at data and planning for next year. It seems there is no downtime from one year to the next. Teachers, coaches, and admin all play a role in what is coming up in the next school year. We all need to work together for the betterment of all students in the school. We need realistic goals that are attainable, but we also need action steps to achieve those goals. The pandemic has had a negative impact on all students, but especially those that did not attend school in person. We are finding that we have students in fourth and fifth grade that may have never learned the foundational skills for reading. We need to start planning ahead so we can fill those gaps. It’s hard to wind down and gear up at the same time.
Can we just finish one year before we start the next? The answer seems to be no. We need to constantly be looking at what is working and what is not so we can monitor and adjust. We need to be getting the kids ready for the following school year and planning for the next school year simultaneously. We need to be packing up this year and getting supplies ordered and delivered for next year.
What strategies can make this easier?
Take one task at a time.
Breathe
Prioritize what has to be done as opposed to what would be nice to get done.
Breathe
Make a calendar and mark the important dates on it in different colors.
Breathe
Talk to your team and see if the workload can be split.
Breathe
Talk to your administrator and tell them what types of support you need. (sometimes they don’t know)
Breathe
Talk to your coaches (if you have one) and ask for help. (we always want to help)
The end of the year is a stressful time. There are deadlines and assessments. We just need to make sure we keep our students and ourselves healthy, happy, and safe. What strategies do you use to wind down at the end of the year while you gear up for the upcoming year?
Image from educationweek.com
Sarah Kirchoff
Sarah Kirchoff is an instructional coach in Mesa Public Schools. She has over 20 years of experience in early childhood education. She began her teaching career way back in August 1999, when everyone was worried about Y2K. She did not even have computers in her classroom at that time! Since then, she has taught first grade for four years, preschool for three years, second grade for two years and kindergarten for twelve years. She has worked for three different school districts during her teaching career. During this time, she has been able to identify which grade she found to be the most enjoyable. Her greatest teaching passion is for kindergarten. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University. She was teacher of the year at her school in the 2019-2020 school year. She became a National Board Certified Teacher as an Early Childhood Generalist in December of 2020. She currently serves on numerous committees at her school including school site council, the instructional leadership team, and the culture and climate team. She is a mentor teacher at her school and has mentored numerous interns and student teaching candidates. When she is not busy with school commitments, she spends time with her family. She has a husband who is also a teacher, and four children. Two of which are students at NAU and two that are in high school. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, reading books and spending time with family, friends and her two dogs. Children need a teacher that is always advocating for them, socially, emotionally, and academically. Sarah wants every student she encounters to realize their potential and she is willing to help in any way she can. The impact early childhood educators have on students reaches far beyond their younger years. Sarah wants to leave a positive impact on her students so they can continue to have wonderful educational experiences beyond her classroom and school.