Week 11: Wrap it up!

 This past week flew by, and as we wrapped up our 3rd marking period I learned a lot about planning and time management. I thought midterms and finalizing assignments was difficult for college classes, however the stress continues as I try to track down students to submit work, email parents, and submit grades and comments on time.

While I believe this year has been especially difficult for students to stay on-top of assignments when they are only face to face with me for 2 days a week, I have learned that more frequent check ins with students to address the urgency to submit late work is needed. Additionally, finding a good system to send home positive feedback to parents throughout the semester would be very beneficial, as I am not a big fan of only communicating with some to inform them that their students is behind on work and close to failing my class. However, after sending emails, I received very positive feedback and some commitments to helping students complete the needed work. I learned that our job as educators becomes a lot easier when parents are also involved in the learning process. 

Another challenge I faced over the past week was finding time to finalize grades while also staying on top of all my other work. While I worked hard to grade student work throughout the marking period, as late assignments started coming in and final projects were wrapping up it started to feel a little overwhelming. I decided to plan out specific time everyday to grade a certain class and verify everything in PowerSchool. This strategy really paid off! 

Another important lesson that I learned from my CT, was the value in including a comment with the final grades to be seen on the student's report card. This is one way that we can send positive feedback home to parents. It took some time, but I included 1-3 short comments on EACH students grade. They were simple statements like "a pleasure to have in class", "exhibits leadership skills in class", "constantly submits high quality work", or "shows strong content knowledge and skills" but these simple comments can go a long way for both the student's confidence and our relationships with parents. 

Overall, the end of the marking period was a little stressful, but I walked away with some very valuable knowledge that I can take with me in the future, and now we get to start the next marking period with a clean slate. I have grown a lot in my teaching and organizational skills since day 1 of student teaching, and I believe that both myself and the students will be better prepared to succeed in the coming weeks. 

#psuaged21 What lessons have you learned from the end of the marking period? How do you communicate with parents throughout the semester? Any tips?