Ending of a Semester

It is the end of January and for most secondary teachers that means a new semester is approaching. Today, I attended professional development to implement changes based on PBA data.

I’m kinda in a panic mode because I have not accomplished my goals with the classes I’m teaching.

(Me on the inside)

Of course with me, I either plan too much or shoot to high. For example, my district has introduced Performance Based Assessments (PBAs). My goal for the semester was to have my students write a response to a PBA with every other unit of study and to have them all graded and feedback provided with a list of interventions in place. That did not occur. I mean I did grade and provide feedback and started to institute interventions in my lessons, but I did not do a PBA with every other unit of study.  It was a lot to take on especially for not having done these before. In October, my district agreed and made changes saying only 1 PBA needed to be completed. I was happy about that BUT I wanted to be an overachiever and do more.

Now it is the end of the semester.

Time for reflection and setting new goals for the Spring.

Why couldn’t I have a PBA completed for every other unit?  It was due to my pacing, my students needed additional practice on particular skills and I fell behind. I was assessing students too much and not working with them.

I forgot to mention that I’m not by myself in the planning. I do work in a team. The World I team is "newish" this year, meaning that I am the only teacher with previous experience. We do not always see “eye to eye” but we do have a common goal to help our students.

My students shown improvement in their writing compared to the beginning of the year and I hope to see a continuation even when they are not given the claim. For second semester the documents students will need to analyze/synthesize from 4 documents to approximately 8 documents AND to create their own claims.

So, my goal for the second semester in regards to PBAs will be to have them practice with 1-2 docs for claim and synthesis at least 2 times a week. Not going to make a long list of goals and feel bogged down. This is a nice attainable goal. Feedback will be given back by the end of each week (depending on the day the classes fall). By practicing with these documents, I hope to continue seeing growth in their PBA results.

Will keep you posted on my progress!