End of Year Must Do: Teacher, Student, and Parent Reflections

There are many things on our teacher end of year to-do list, from cleaning our classrooms to completing the final assessments and report cards, our to-do list grows longer each day. Even though we work hard to check everything off of our to do lists, adding this one more thing to your list will be the best thing you do all year!

One non-negotiable that should be on every teacher's end of year to do list is reflecting on the school year.

Reflecting is such an important part of being a teacher. By being reflective thinkers we are able to hone our teaching skills, perfect our strengths, and set goals for the upcoming year to further improve ourselves as educators. I use a three step reflection process to help me truly understand how the year went. I begin by reflecting on myself, I ask my students to reflect on their year, and I ask their parents to reflect on the year as well. By gathering invaluable information from my students and their families in the form of reflections, I can gain invaluable perspectives about the classroom community I am building, the lessons that I teach, and the projects that I assign.

Quick Teacher Tips:

Have parent and students complete reflection pages anonymously.
Stay positive about all reflections, they are meant to help us refine our skills. Do not get upset with suggestions from students or parents. Use their feedback in preparing for your upcoming year to make improvements.
After reading the submitted reflections from parents and students, make
a checklist of 3 things to focus on changing or modifying for the next school year.

We can not work on everything, so select the top three that you want to focus on improving.

Try this: Reflect monthly on your teaching practices. Then at the end of the year reflect on your monthly reflections. This will make reflecting on your teaching practices at the end of the year much easier.

Reflecting is a simple way to set goals and improve your teaching practices. It also sets a focus for upcoming PD you may wish to attend. Be sure to add reflecting on your end-of-year to do list. Make your own reflection forms that reflect how you ran your classroom, or grab the set that I use for FREE at the bottom of this post. You will love reading the reflections from your students and their families.

Enjoy the end of the year with your students!