The incredibly long school year has come to an end. As of 3:15 today, instruction time is finished and all that remains is field day activities. The stress, anxiety and insecurities felt in the first nine months of a career are over.
As I look back with fresh eyes, however, I am confronted with a host of questions such as "Why did I do that?" "Why wouldn't I have handled that differently" or "Next year, I wonder if I should do this?"
So here is my promise to future Ashley Smith: You will make more mistakes but you will get better by having made them in the first place. Some of my down falls looking back are, the lack of reflective thinking, organization, student accountability, parental interactions and a slue of other things that I just can't think of right now or my head might very well explode.
Step 1. Be more honest with myself. The "first year novelty" is officially over. You are help accountable for the mistakes you are going to make. Are those made after trying as hard as you possibly can? I certainly hope so and making the habit of active reflection weekly if not daily will be an asset to making sure that is the case. This begins now. Summer is not vacation; it is an extra long planning period!
