End of Year Science Teacher Reflections

I strongly believe that the first few days, after the school year ends, should be spent analyzing and evaluating. End of school reflections don’t take much time, but are invaluable. Every minute of the school year was a growing experience that should either be expanded upon or changed. Here are some areas of reflection that I always do before locking my classroom and hitting the beach.

Evaluate Your Units

• Which unit(s)went exceptionally well?
• What strategies did you use to contribute to the success of a unit? Look deep at the details of how you structured the unit, how long it took, student comments, and how you assessed the students. 
  
• What unit(s) disappointed you?
• What were the complaint points from you or your students?
• What elements of the successful units could you incorporate into the ones that need improvement?

Review Your Labs and Activities

• Which labs got the most “This is fun!” comments?
• Which activities did you feel really solidified the concepts you wanted students to learn?
• Dissect those great labs and pull out the key methodologies that you used. 
• Which labs or activities landed with a dull thud? 
• Look at your key points from the good labs and brainstorm how you could spice up the others.
• Which activities did you try that should be eliminated next year? We are always growing. 
  

Look At Your Favorite Teaching Style

• When were you the most relaxed, most happy with students and feeling like a rock star? 
• Which activity type worked best for you? Group activities, discussion prompts, STEM projects, etc?
• What were your “Dunkin’ Donuts” projects? What do I mean by this? Your kids were so engaged that they forgot that you were there! You could drive down to the local Dunkin’ Donuts, buy a coffee and the students wouldn’t even notice that you were gone.
• Which teaching days made you feel the most harassed, exhausted and let down?
• What do you think caused that to happen? Were you unprepared? Did you forget to break the information into smaller time segments?
• How could you make the students have more self driven learning to take the constant pressure of “being on stage“ off of you?

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How Was Your Pacing This Past Year?

One of my biggest flaws for many years was waking up in November and realizing that I had only covered one and a half or two units! I would panic and rush through until winter break. Then I got wiser, made a planner and found the free Trello app.(How Teachers Can Use Trello for Organizing Lesson Plans!)

• Do you have a good planner that you use and stay with it? ( Are You Looking For a Super Organized Lesson Planner Just For Science Teachers?

• Did you create a pacing guide for the entire year and follow it?
• Do you have some place where all of your lessons for the year are created so that you just plug-in for your weekly lesson plans? When I discovered the free app called Trello, my teacher life literally changed. I can put each lesson in my exact order and it is easy to move around and adjust. 
• Did you keep a journal every day to write down what you covered for each of your classes? This will help tremendously when tweaking the pacing guide for next year. Remember, every year gets easier!

How Did You Handle Your Science Supplies?

• Did you find yourself running out of materials before each lab so that you were running to the supermarket?
• Did you use your budget wisely or did you end up using your own money?
• Did you keep a careful inventory of the materials that you have? This is the time to update it for the upcoming year. (20 Tips For Doing You End of Year Science Classroom Inventory)
• Do you keep enough supplies on hand, for each unit, so you can quickly change gears if needed or tell a substitute teacher?
• Were students respectful of the materials in your classroom? Did you cover the rules of handling equipment and cleaning up carefully at the beginning of the school year?
• Do you have posters explaining procedures around your room so that students know where everything goes?
• Do you have a list of supplies in June for what you need to order so that you are not running around in August? (Basic Supplies You Need in Your Science Classroom)

Evaluate the Relationships From the School Year

This important part of the school year is always growing and evolving. We can always improve relationships with students, colleagues and administration.

• What powerful connections did you make with any students, administration or with a fellow teacher?
• Analyze your method of forming that connection. Did it happen organically or did you work hard with specific strategies?
• Did you keep a journal to record every small win?(7 Reasons Why You Should Keep a Teacher Journal)
• Did you organize a folder with any nice letters that you received from students, parents or administration? These will be something that you treasure over the years,
• What relationships or interactions made you not so proud? Strategize, while you are calm, what you could’ve done differently.
• Create a bullet list of useful ideas in your planner for next year. You might be in the thick of things with an individual and need to be reminded of things like counting to10 before reacting.

Did You Use Your Time Wisely?

• Did you leave school on time?
• Did you avoid bringing tons of work home?
• Did you use your free planning periods efficiently?
• Did you use easy to grade rubrics, or grading tactics that cut down the amount of paperwork?
• Did you budget your time in the morning so that you were not stressed and arriving to work frazzled?

Conclusion

Reflecting on the school year, instead of running out of the door in June, can make a huge difference. Once you have taken a few moments to answer all of the questions about the school year, you can formulate some plans and then put them aside and enjoy your summer.

We all learn that trying to reflect, plan, organize your classroom, and deal with the 1000 things that your administration wants in August, is just way too stressful.

Please check out my blog on the (First Day of School in Middle School Science) along with other classroom management tips that may come in handy over the summer as you are reading on the beach!