I have been reading professional books and chatting online about educational leadership, the importance of teacher and student input into decision-making in schools, and how to give more ownership to my students of their reading and writing projects. I have some questions and random thoughts about these topics. I am capturing them here so I don’t forget. Here they are, in no particular order of importance:

• Teacher input to administration about how things are going is valuable. So is the input my students provide to me about what’s working and not working in our class. I need to solicit this input from my students on a regular basis. Maybe every 3 – 4 months.

• How can I make my reading and writing workshop more robust without taking the enjoyment out of reading and writing for my students?

• How can I improve my note taking during reading and writing workshop so that I can use this information for planning instruction and conferring with students?

• How can I use negative input from students for improving our classroom without taking it personally?

• If I invite students to have lunch with me, will they accept? How will this impact my relationship with students?

• It is so important to connect with students every day. A simple, “How are you?” can go a long way. It’s also important to keep track of and follow up with students who don’t seem to be doing well.

• Teaching is all about relationships.

• What method of taking notes during one-on-one and small group instruction will I use? I have tried so many different ones, but I am not happy with any of the ones that I’ve tried. My primary challenge is to make sure the strategy is not complicated and that the information is valuable and can be used for instruction.

I am on spring break this week, you’d think I could find a moment to rest and not think about teaching. Ha! That’s often all I do, even when I’m doing something else. I love it, though. This reflection is not a burden. It keeps me on my toes.

Any comments about my ideas above will be greatly appreciated.

Cross posted to Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge, Day #20.