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I’ve shared a lot of my reflections about the past school year (see MY 8 END-OF-SCHOOL-YEAR REFLECTION POSTS – ALL IN ONE PLACE (2023))

Now, I’m pretty done with them, and plan to focus on working on the next edition of The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox, and relaxing.

But, before I do that, I thought I’d write one final post related to both the last ten months and to the next year.

Here are the major concerns I have about the next school year that I’m going to try not to think about until right before school begins again:

1.Even though, based on the many experiments I tried near the end of the last school year, I believe I have a handle on how to handle Artificial Intelligence, I’m still a bit concerned about how it will all play out.  Good luck to us all on this issue!

2. A group of teachers from our school is meeting over the summer to develop a firm cellphone policy.  I’ve also written in my previous reflections on this past school year about changes I want to make about cellphones.  As part of that, sometime prior to the beginning of the year, I need to prepare a lesson plan on cellphones for my Newcomers, and another one for my TOK students.

3. As I’ve previously written, mental health issues among students have increased.  I hope they reached their peak last year.

4. Related to number three, I, along with everybody else, am concerned about when the next COVID surge will hit and how severe it will be.

5. I’ve got to figure out some better ways to sustain my energy.  I began running low last year sooner than I had ever done before.  I’ll be teaching a double period of the same Newcomers next year instead of a Newcomers English class and an Intermediate History class, so that reduction of preps should help.

6. Our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad district Superintendent announced his resignation two days ago, effective today.  That was great news for teachers, classified staff, our students, and their families.  Obviously, whatever happens next will be better.  However, our district does have a long track record of hiring terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Superintendents.  This school board seems a lot better than ones in the past, but you never know.

7. We had to pack-up everything at the end of the school year because our school is getting renovated this summer.  They said they wouldn’t be done by the time school starts, but “will work around us.”  Who knows when and if we’ll get all our stuff back and heaven knows what “work around us” will mean?

8. As I mentioned earlier in this post, Katie Hull and I are working hard on the second edition of The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox, which will have sixty-one chapters.  It’s not going to be done until next September 1st, and we have eleven done.  I’m hopeful we’ll get between forty-and-forty-five done before the school year begins, because it’s not really feasible for us to do much book-writing during the school year.  If we don’t reach that goal, it’s going to mean that we’ll have to find a way to find a way to make it feasible.

 

Okay, now that I did that brain dump, it’s time to put all those concerns out of my mind and go play Pickleball!