Revisiting My Longterm Goal
My long term goal at the start of year 2 of this induction program was to establish a comprehensive leveled reading program in my classroom. I approached this goal with some hesitancy as to exactly how to do this, but with a sense of inpiration from what I had observed from mentor teachers in the past. The main reason I chose this as my focus this year was that I was overwhelmed my first year of teaching at how big the gap was between my advanced and struggling readers. I found whole group instruction to be immensly difficult, and needed a way for all my students to be working on content that was "just right" for them.
As we are coming to the end of the year, my sense of satisfaction in relation to this goal comes from two things:
- All of my students have shown measureable progress in their reading fluency, accuracy and comprehension from the beginning of the year.
- I am one year deeper into understanding how to run an effectively leveled classroom reading program, and have created some of the tools I have found useful to work with our school's adopted cirriculum.
Next year, I would like to improve upon my small group lessons during reading groups. I would like to use this time to implement more individualized instruction using an Ortan Gillingam based curriculum.
Actions I Will Take To Remain a Connected Educator
- I will continue to seek guidance from my mentors and fellow teachers, as well as my administrator.
- I have some reading material that is on my summer reading list that I hope will give me some inspiration for further reading and writing instruction next year.
- I will seek support from my peers in other districts to help get instructional ideas and (potentially) supplies to bolster my math instruction for next year.
How Will I Sustain My Energy To Remain Passionate?
I consider myself very lucky to have both a mentor and administrator who recognize the challenges inherent in this job, and the need for a healthy work/life balance. I recognize that I could spend every waking hour of the day in my classroom, and still feel that I am not doing everything I could to reach ALL of my students' needs. This being said, I will do all I can with what time I can give to my students, while still being a present and available husband and father and allowing myself time in the outdoors to be active and engaged with this wonderful lanscape around me.
A Quote From My Administrator
"Mr. Wiese is a gentle instructor that can control his classroom with kindness, yet he has high expectations for his students and keeps excellent records so that he can see trends and issues. More importantly, he addresses those issues by analyzing the data and will implement changes to his instruction to support all students."
My Advice to a First Year Teacher
Keep things as simple as you can and get rid of things you don't use.