Spring is upon us. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was indeed correct when he said that a young man's fancy often turns to love about this time. We see it evidenced every day in our middle level classrooms as spring fever hits student after student … and maybe even a teacher or two. Spring is also a time of rebirth and renewal and, therefore, the perfect time to engage in reflection on the past year so that we can continue to grow, learn, and improve as educators.

In my first letter in September, I shared with you that my team begins every year by asking ourselves how we will know we've been successful, and I urged you to do the same with your teammates and colleagues. Now it's time to consider the answer. What have your successes been this year? What created those successes? How will you duplicate them in the future? How can you build on this success? In what areas did you fail to meet your goals? How have you learned from this, and where do you need to continue to grow?

As I look back on the year, I'm so proud that my team finally accomplished a goal we had been working toward for two years. Our students held student-led conferences with their parents at the end of the first semester. We had carefully laid the foundation of reflection and responsibility throughout the year to help prepare them for this occasion. As usual, they performed beautifully, and we received overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents, students, and administration. Upon reflection, we realized that student-led conferences not only helped our students assume responsibility for their learning but also enhanced communication between students, parents, and teachers. Yet, as with any process, there's always room for improvement, and we have identified those areas in need of refinement for next year.

While self-assessment is important, it's equally important to gather input from other sources. Who better than your parents and students? Parents often have unique insights that we may have overlooked, so before the year ends, we will create a parent evaluation specific to the needs of our team and will use their responses to consider how we can improve all areas of team life. Our students will write and share Memory Minutes, reflections on the school year, and while their primary purpose isn't to provide evaluation information, we find the student's perspective always helps us grow and become a better team.

Want to really go out on a limb? Ask your students to design a teacher or team report card. Let them establish the criteria and assign grades to you. Trust me, you'll learn a lot from this. Another valuable strategy is to ask students to write letters to next year's team members. You will not only learn something from these, but the letters will serve as a wonderful "welcome to the team" for next year's students.

I hope that your year has been filled with success, but more important, I hope that you will take the time to reflect and learn from both your successes and your shortcomings. William Pollard said, "Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal; great teachers and teams are always growing and giving life to new and better ways of meeting the needs of their students.

Best wishes for new growth in the coming months,

Theresa W.Hinkle
NMSA President