Self-Assessment: A new year, a new you
The new school year is almost here (or already here for some of you)! As you figuratively dust off your curriculum and clear the cobwebs, take some time to reflect on ways you would like to be a better teacher.
Here are 5 powerful self-assessment questions to ask yourself as you start the new year-
  • How did you feel about your performance last year? (Go easy on this one. We are often our worst critics.) Take a look at how you felt last year. Did you encourage creativity? Were you true to yourself as a teacher? Did you model positive behaviors for your students and other teachers? Did you create a culture and environment conducive to learning?
  • What was your student feedback from last year? Review your most recent student feedback and look for trends. Was there a project that multiple students loved? Remarks that struck a chord for you? If you haven’t had students do assessments in the past, consider implementing evaluations in the coming year–remember mid-course feedback is a great way to implement changes in the moment. Visit Edutopia for ideas on gathering student feedback.
  • What technology tools do you have at hand? Often times, we have valuable resources in our classrooms without knowing it or without having the time to learn how to fully take advantage of them. Investing time now to train on these resources can save you hours of work throughout the year. If you have Pearson products, feel free to hop on a product demo as a refresher course. Do you know your Student Information System capabilities? Are you familiar with all of the aspects of your Learning Management System? Do you have an assessment and reporting tool or Instructional Improvement System? How about a parent notification system?
  • Are your goals measurable? “Implement more technology learning in my classroom” is an important goal, but too vague to be useful. Instead, shoot for a more specific and measurable goal, such as “Assign a group project that requires students to collaborate on a class blog with multiple posts relating to our unit on classic literature.” Pick a few measurable goals that touch on different areas of your teaching and your curriculum.EducationWorld shares how to do this.
  • Are you reinventing the wheel? Oh snap. This is such an educator trap that I can personally identify with. As a group, we’re a highly innovative, creative, and often independently-working bunch. As you take on these other questions, don’t reinvent the wheel–ask around, spend some time with a teacher you admire and find out how she or he answers these questions.
A couple of tweaks and a few measurable goals are all you really need to improve the coming year. Keep it easy–just polish off some of the rough parts so that it rolls more smoothly!
What changes do you plan to try out this year?