Take the Time to Reflect

As the school year comes to an end, it is important to reflect upon the achievements made over the past year. This is a crucial process for teachers as it justifies and validates all of the hard work put in over the past ten months. The tricky part is that the last month of the school year tends to be extremely busy. There is graduation, farewell celebrations, that last bit of marking and report cards. It can be a crazy time and it is easy to forget to reflect upon the previous nine months as we approach the finish line.

Personally, I’m running low on gas as I near the end of the year. Instead of crossing the finish line with a sprint it will be more like a brisk walk. That’s fine by me; most people who run a marathon don’t sprint across the finish line. Having taken a few moments to look back upon my year, my review provided me with a sense of satisfaction and it also gave me a bit of an energy boost. Overall there were many more ups than downs throughout the year and there were also a number significant events as well (some of which I had forgotten about).

One particular event stood out to me. I had met another technology integration coach at a conference back in September and we stayed connected via twitter and Google+. In the spring she suggested we collaborate on a project and we ultimately decided to pursue a mystery skype. We ended up connecting two grade 4 teachers and we worked with them to prepare the activity. I was blown away with how well it went and I still remember to this day the energy in the classroom as the students worked together to determine where in the world the other students were located. When the students achieved their goals (country, city & school), cheering and dancing broke out!!

This wasn’t a particularly huge event for me but for the students (and me) it was one of the more memorable moments of the year.  Do you have some memorable events to look back on? I’m sure that you do… just make sure that you take the time to reflect upon them. Have a great summer!