Recently Spotify sent me a report, entitled 2022 Wrapped, detailing my activities on the audio streaming service for this year. I learned that I listened to the Encanto soundtrack a LOT of times. My top six tracks in 2022 were from the Disney film. The Spotify report also revealed how many minutes (54,229!) I listened last year, as well as what my favorite genres were, how many different artists I listened to (1784), as well as my most played artist of the year (it was  The Beatles – 4205 minutes – apparently I was in the top 0.1% of Beatles listeners in 2022). 

I totally wish I had such a report about my teaching performance. I love reflecting on my teaching practice and looking at ways to improve. While I try to collect a lot of data throughout the year, there are some things that I haven’t figured out how to efficiently or easily track: 

• What was the ratio of me talking vs. students talking? 
• How did I balance the time during my 90-minute blocks?    
• Am I being equitable when calling on students?
• When I walk around the class, am I making time to check in with everyone?
• During prep periods, am I spending enough time away from my desk/device? 
• How often did I work on connecting with my colleagues?

I will take some time during the upcoming winter break to think of ways to keep these concerns top-of-mind in the second semester. And, I’ll try to come up with some effective new tracking strategies. 

If you have any suggestions, I’d love to know What Else Can I Do?

Happy holidays and here’s to an amazing 2023!

Ed X!