Daily Reflection

Students came back to school on Wednesday, which was also the first day of the 2nd semester. I opened by asking them if they normally write resolutions in the new year, and to write an academic and a personal goal for themselves for 2018.

Then I talked about my own resolutions, and I began by admitting something to them. 

I hate binder checks.

I hate them so much that even though I said I was going to do them periodically last semester, I just... didn't. And, the longer I waited to do a binder check, the more overwhelming it became. Not doing regular binder checks became a source of embarrassment, but not enough to overcome my laziness. They are a PAIN, and they don't even seem to work. When I actually did them last year, they took me hours upon hours, and most of the classwork looked copied at the last minute anyways. So, over this winter break, I finally admitted to myself that I'm not going to do another binder check, ever. 

Here's my new policy for checking classwork: students have a stamp sheet for classwork, printed double sided. It's due every other Friday, and each stamp is worth 1 point. I stamp in the last 5 minutes of class. They make 2 piles at their desk: stamp logs and the classwork that I'm checking is complete. It takes me about 15-30 seconds per table to stamp.

While I go around stamping, they take out a half sheet of paper and answer the following questions in complete sentences: 

1. What did we do today and what did you learn from it?
2. What do you still not understand?
3. How does what we learned today connect to what we learned yesterday?
4. Give an example of the topic we learned today.

They then turn in their answers to the reflection questions to me as they leave through the door. I read them and then toss them. I save the best one to read at the beginning of class the next day, and I deduct their warm-up points if the reflection isn't complete. But I don't grade them, and I don't return them. If I ever don't have time to read them, it wouldn't be a big deal to just throw them away.

So, I've massively cut down on the amount of work I have to do daily, and students are asked to reflect on what we learned each day. It's only been 2 days so far, but I like it!

Here's an example of student work: