Mostly it's been a year of procedural and managerial challenges--challenges related to schedules, routines, materials, and paperwork. The greater number of students has definitely been one factor as there isn't the wiggle room in the classroom or schedule for needed space and time because of the large numbers. The fact that some expectations are constantly changing is another challenge--expectations I thought I understood are different than what I expected so there's a learning curve there. And as I mentioned before, I simply have less support since last year I had a full time teaching assistant and this year it's only me, that's a 50% reduction in support for all things related to procedures and management, and the difference is challenging.
So what can I do in the face of all this. First, I'll add changes for next year to meet the new expectations. Changes that include the following:
- Focus on the parent handbook and needed signatures at Curriculum Night
- Focus on the student handbooks and signatures during the first days of school
- Ask about required school forms during set-up days to plan accordingly
- Attempt to get all field trip phone calls, schedules, and paperwork completed during the summer since it's difficult to organize these trips during the school year.
- Do a better job checking that students have the supplies necessary at the start of the year, and contacting families of students who don't have the supplies to figure out next steps with regard to supplies such as headphones, portfolios, Sharpies, and more.
- Create five extra supply collections for potential new students or students who don't have their supplies.
- Make the time to order more supplies in the spring so there's no need to buy supplies over the summer and into the fall. Keep a running list of supplies during the school year.
- Re-look at scheduling with the team to even better our already good weekly schedule.
- Think carefully with colleagues about administrative expectations and build those expectations into the daily routine for students.
To update my procedural and managerial efforts will mean less stress for me and the class as this area of school life has been extremely stressful which has led to further stress and even an accident caused, in part, by the worry.
The upside of the year is that it has been a very good teaching/learning year so far. The students are eager to learn, and the learning results so far show growth, perseverance, support, and happiness. We've built a good teaching/learning team with families, students, and teachers, and will continue to use our time and efforts to strengthen this team more.
I'll continue to look for ways to better the administrative, management, and procedural aspects of my work--this year's surprising area of challenge.
Note: Every teaching/learning year brings new challenges, and every teaching/learning year there's lots to learn. What's mostly unexpected is that you can never predict what the year's challenge will be until the year arrives--there's always that element of surprise for better or worse.
