Teaching

As a teacher, I have never been one to stick to what the text book says, or to continuously do the same thing over and over. I am nearing the end of my 9th year teaching and I'm in my third content area and third grade level.

Each year I tend to reinvent. It is a positive and negative aspect of my life as a teacher. The positive is that I'm always looking for different ways to get the information across to the students and always looking for the best ways in which to reach the students. I am constantly wanting to try out new things. The negative comes in that I need to stick to things for longer than I do. Once I see that something is working I need to write it down so that I can do it again next year. My organizational skills need some work.

I am in the midst of planning out my next year and how I want to do things differently. Instead of a binder I want to use a composition book with my students. I want to implement it the way that The Book Whisperer does: a To-Be-Read list, a Currently Reading list, and a Reading Response section. I am trying to find the way to incorporate those things that will work best for my students.

I also want to use storyboardthat with my students. I had them do comic strips this year over The Hero and the Minotaur. They did awesome on the comic strips, but I think some of my more artistically challenged students would have preferred to have the artistry done for them by a website.

I also know that I need to do more work with vocabulary next year and, I hate to say it, more test taking strategies. The sad fact is that these kids have to know how to read a test and answer questions.

One of the best things about always wanting to reinvent my teaching is that I am far from teacher burnout. I love what I do. I love going into work. How do you reinvent your teaching?