Tonight I’m linking up with Miss Lifesaver for End of Year Reflections. Click her super cute button to link up now!
End-of-Year Reflection Questions:
- What was the biggest professional challenge you faced this year?
My biggest professional challenge was handling change. This year my district shifted from a rubric standards based grading system back to the traditional but with a numeric system mid-year. The changes are many! We shifted in our assessment practices to have plc’s every week. The time it took to put a grade on just one paper into our new online system went from 23 seconds not to include grading time to 8.5 seconds. Yes, I have timed and timed and timed the exponential growth in the amount of time it takes to just put a grade with one sheet for one student. You don’t even want to know how much time we have lost this year due to all the changes.
- What was the biggest personal challenge you faced this year?
My biggest personal challenge was returning to the classroom to receive not only love but GERMS! I was sick almost every month this year. I had pneumonia in March! It was terrible. At times I wonder how much my body can handle as far as illness. I took several courses of antibiotics and 2 courses of steroids. The multiple illnesses was overwhelming but fortunately I didn’t take a day off for 2 years so I had over a few hundred hours built up. I still have well over 200 hours of sick time too. So I’m ready for next year!
- How do you think you’ve grown from your experiences?
Absolutely I have grown from these experiences as I am completely aware that things will change such as my immune system and district implementations.
This is a great linky to make you think! I will try to link up later this evening. Thanks for sharing you deep thoughts. 🙂
Brandee @ Creating Lifelong Learners
Thanks so much for linking up! I hope you built up all your anti-bodies this year so you don’t have to use any more days next year. Yikes! And I can’t believe your district made changes like that during the school year, although it sounds like it was for the best since it’s saving you so much time!
Why does it seem like grading is always one of the most difficult part?! Not giving students feedback and instructing them with what they need, but the actual act of grade and entering it into an online grading system!!