In the summer, I trained to be a mentor. Didn’t get a mentee until the middle of the year. She just called this morning to say that she received a note from the Certification Coordinator that all the documentation was good and her first year was completed. Yay! Especially after the scare I had when I misplaced some of the documentation. There are so many little things that can go wrong, and I have a tendency to focus on those negative things, quickly forgetting all the good that happened. I asked the coordinator for some constructive feedback and she literally called me a “miracle worker” for getting everything done in such a short time.
My desk is currently a disaster at the end of the year. Keeping things tidy is a never ending battle for me, and my brain immediately jumps into “Why can’t you do this?”. However, this year, I put some systems in place to make many things more organized, and I felt much more in control. Some were just as simple as having a folder (instead of a binder) for a professional development certificates. While my desk was still chaos, important stuff wasn’t mixed in with the chaos.
One purpose of this blog is to take note of the things that go well. Confirmation bias is such a funny thing; I stumbled upon this post Noticing the Good Stuff: A Suggested Practice from one of my favorite blogs, Cult of Pedagogy.
What else has gone well:
All students were prepared to present when their projects were due.
Students played drums and chanted my name on the way to the car.
Students sold enough ads to pay for the variety show programs.
Students were super engaged when we played a game.
I had no big discipline issues this quarter.
I have all my stuff graded and more than enough time to clean up my classroom and complete the end of year checklist!