It’s that time of the year where I reflect on my practice, and think about THREE major lessons to take away. Here are my lessons from last year, if you are curious!
This year felt like a lot. Being a combined grade primary-junior teacher (Grade 3/4) combined with starting off in a brand new school took a lot of energy. I felt capable when a lesson was successful and both grades were engaged. Some days I felt more tired.
But I showed up. Every day. And now it’s June, and I’m reflecting on what this year taught me.
1. Positive Self-Talk Matters… so everyone puts forth their best!
Positive self-talk is about being kind to yourself and building resiliency through hard tasks. By modelling self-talk as an educator, it helps students experience growth and success, especially during times they feel stuck in the learning cycle.
2. STEM Matters… now more than ever!
Building identity, relations, and connection to STEM is important. It helps build resiliency, reasoning and critical thinking skills. By helping students see current diverse role models in STEM, students get the message that “we belong in these spaces.”
3. Handwriting Matters… to build neural pathways ,
In the times of technology, and as wonderful as it is… I reverted back to more pencil-paper tasks. I saw students slow down when they wrote by hand. They thought more. They remembered more (especially capitals and punctuation!). Of course technology is provided as support (or if it was outlined in an IEP). But by pushing more handwriting tasks, students shared their own thinking more. Their notes, their reflections, their drafts – they approached the work differently.
It wasn’t a perfect year but it was full of growth and moments where I surprised myself. And for me, that’s more than enough!
What are your three lessons from this school year?
