I hope you are all settling into summer and enjoying some space in your schedule. Along with all of the fun summer activities you might be doing, setting aside some reflection time could be a useful and meaningful step toward fully diving into doing what you love during your vacation.
After releasing the school year, it doesn’t mean we forget it or that there aren’t things we’d like to change.
Take some time to intentionally reflect on the school year and make some notes for yourself before you get too far away from it. This way, you’ll know that you’ve attended to those thoughts that might follow you throughout your summer if you push them aside.
Here are some questions you might consider as you do this, either in writing in a journal or in a drawing or graphic organizer of some kind:
- What are some things that went really well in my classroom this year that I want to continue?
- What are some challenges I faced in my classes this year? Is there anything that I can do to change that next year?
- What is my mission statement for my classroom? What steps will I take to make it a reality?
- What do I want the overall feel of my classroom to be? What words do I want my students to use when they describe my class? What steps will I take to create that?
You’ll notice that this reflection is focused on your own classroom. While there are a lot of things that happen in a school and in education in general each day, I find it most useful to focus first on what I can control – what I do in my own classes and how I show up each day.
There is certainly other reflecting that you can do in a variety of areas, and I encourage you to do that, too.
As you reflect, make sure to be a solution seeker!
Write down action steps for how you’ll get to your goal. After you’ve done this, you can rest assured that you have given this your attention and perhaps more easily shift into a space of true relaxation and rejuvenation for the duration of the summer.
