Mid year check in: Goals

Setting goals at the beginning of this year was a bit of an unknown. Fortunately at the end of Term One we were given an "official" chance to review where we were heading in terms of appraisal. 11 weeks later and it's time for a check point.

1 (continued from Term One) Develop a strong understanding of students and their relationships (personal and learning) in Y1-4.
This has been a really interesting part of my professional development. Of all the ages, I really thought that I would dislike NE-Y2 the most. But I have surprised myself! I actually really enjoy working with that age group. I have learnt sooooo much this year and have a greater appreciation of all junior teachers. Every teacher should work at least one year in this age group to fully appreciate the development of a child from a New Entrant. Everything, absolutely everything, is a lesson - social interactions, self management, management of equipment and belongings, and of course the curriculum based lessons! The children are so eager to learn and the most important thing I've learnt that it is our job to make learning desirable and enjoyable in these early years. To nurture and care for the child to set them up for successful schooling. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to consolidate my practice here.

2 Build effective and and interesting literacy practises to engage foundation (emergent) students into reading and writing.
This is going very well for me. Literacy has always been a passion and strength of mine and I thought I knew a bit about literacy..... Turns out I didn't know nearly as much as I thought! I'm learning so much and really enjoying it. There's another blog post coming about this, so watch this space.

3 Be proactive about interactions with parents
Although I continue to work on all areas of my practise, this is the one really essential one that I feel I need most work on. I'm getting better at approaching parents before/after school and having conversations, not only to build relationships but also to have those essential conversations. The bit I need to focus on is structuring the conversation to get my point across succinctly and worded tactfully. (The 'blue' part of me tends to blurt a little bit, and the confidence side of me tends to get flustered!) So my plan is to develop some confidence by going to Toastmasters next term. But first I just need to talk myself into actually turning up!