Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Professional Goals For This Year

Happy New School Year!

I am currently waiting to begin our open house in a few hours.  We will get to meet new families, see new faces, and see families and students that we have known for years.  I am excited to get a new, fresh start to the year, and there are a lot of things I will try to improve from previous years.

First and foremost, my main goal for this year is to finally be organized for more than the first few weeks of the year.  Sometime this week I will tackle my file cabinet.  I am dreading that, as it hasn't been cleaned out since I started at this school.

Looks so peaceful and inoffensive from the outside....
EEEEEEEEK!  So... much... unnecessary.... junk..........
 Last year I switched from  my teacher desk to a round table in the hopes that I could keep that better organized.  That ended up proving to be hopeless.  This year I have switched from the round table to a trapezoid table that is about half the size.  Less surface area means less clutter, right?  I plan on using my mailbox organizer to better effect throughout the school year, using it to stage copies for each class rather than hold random sets of papers that may or may not ever be needed again.  I've even added binder clips to the front of each slot to use for labels.  Now I just have to find tiny labels that will fit the tiny binder clips.

My hot rod music cart is still in service, and continues to evolve.  This year's evolution involves zip-tying my PVC drumstick caddy on one leg.  I am hopeful that keeping those sticks close will encourage my percussionists to stop losing them.




I have rearranged my word wall, though it still needs some tweaking.  Now everything is visible from anywhere in the room, and I hope to be able to use the various word wall categories to greater effect.  It's bugging me that a couple of them are a  little crooked, so I know what I'll be doing shortly.
So here it is. My classroom in all its almost-organized glory.  You can see where my girlfriend made her mark on the chalkboards, and the old piano waiting to be taken away, you might even be able to see the leak stains on the ceiling if you look closely.

Another of my professional goals for the year is to foster greater student independence.  I have pencils and other writing items set where students can easily get them.  I have placed my classroom rhythm instruments in open bins at the front of the room to make them easier to get to.  I plan on assigning students to be passer-outers for these items to help free me up and foster smoother transitions.  I am hopeful that anything I can do to encourage students to be more procedurally independent will lend itself to them being more independent in other areas as well.  Which as a music teacher really means I'm trying one more sneaky way to encourage kids to practice at home.

We all have our cross to bear.

My third goal for the year is to be more open to spontaneous performance opportunities and to schedule more opportunities for students to perform for each other and for me.  My girlfriend gave me a small lectern and folding chair, so I have them set up in the corner to use as a performance spot. I'm thinking that I will give students the chance at least once a month to perform something for their classmates, whether it is singing, playing an instrument, or some other kind of performance.  I think I may finally be getting past my feeling of not having enough time for that or not wanting kids to get up in front of their classmates and waste our time with a "performance" that is really just a chance to be in the spotlight doing nothing.  I'm still working out the logistics on this, so I would love to hear ideas and suggestions.

So that's it for now!  I am entering my 8th year of teaching this year, and feel like every year gets easier in some ways and more difficult in others.  I plan to be the best music teacher I can be this year, and do the best I can for all of my students.  That's really all we as educators can do, so here we go!


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