Reflections on My First Year of Teaching Online

The new school year is rapidly approaching, so I thought I would finally take a couple of minutes to reflect on the previous school year. Last year was my first year teaching all courses online and my first year teaching with TCAH. And although it was a challenging year, it had a happy ending.

TEA threw us a curve ball last year right as the school year began which basically capped our enrollment way below what was anticipated, so many students had to be shifted to a private section (as did teachers). With all of the moving around and the 300 students I had at the beginning of the year, I was seriously beginning to think that perhaps I had made a wrong decision. But, I decided to hang in there and keep plodding away. By the second six weeks things had calmed down a lot and by third six weeks I began to feel settled and like I was beginning to get some solid ground beneath my feet. (My student load was also much lower than at the start which helped a lot).

I am not sure I would have stayed had it not been for the awesome administrators and fellow teachers... not to mention the really nice families I worked with. They were all super helpful and encouraging. I also really like the mission of TCAH and the way in which learning is laid out, so I decided to invest some more time in the school, and I am glad I did.

Overall, especially with the difficulties we overcame, I feel like I had a really good first year. 

Here are a few accomplishments I am specifically proud of this school year:

• 99% pass rate for 8th grade Reading TAKS (with 100% participation)
• Taught a few low-key staff development sessions and presented to a few visitors
• Learned how to manage my time to accomplish my daily goals
• Attended several field trips and met lots of families
• Cultivated good relationships with my homeroom students/families

Although I feel like I had a very positive year, I still have areas in which I would like to grow and improve.

Which brings me to my goals for this year:

• Really get to know all of the readings and lessons assigned to the students
• Make my live teaching sessions more interactive with students
• Increase my contact with families
• Familiarize myself with the new STAAR test and requirements
• Give more specific feedback on students' writing

Last night I was thinking about the questions I answered in my previous post about online teaching and how it is different, and I decided I left out a big chunk of information so I thought I would add it here for clarification.

Teaching in an online classroom isn't foreign to me like it is to many traditional teachers. I had the experience of working in a one-to-one laptop district for ten years prior to moving to my new online position. I taught in a traditional classroom with students in front of me, but the majority of their work was done on the computer, so I was used to using a computer to generate lessons, post lessons to a learning management system, and grade lessons digitally. So, although I was learning a new system and way of doing things last year, I already had the majority of the technology skills and experiences I needed to be successful. I think this allowed me to have a much easier and seamless transition than some of my other first year colleagues. I also think this is one of the reasons I don't "see" as many differences in face-to-face instruction and online instruction (besides the physical).

I also had the opportunity to teach and develop online courses for my previous school district, and I obtained my Master's degree via online classwork. So, I was going in to the position with some experience to reflect and pull on when needed. I am very thankful for that. I believe my prior experience really served me well last year.

I am looking forward to beginning the new school year now that I have a year under my belt. I think it is going to be an even better year for me and my students! I wish you success with your school year as well.