End of Year Self-Reflection Questions for Teachers

I regularly like to take a step back and be honest with myself about how things are working in my classroom, but the end of the year is a great time to take some time out to really think about how the past school year went. One thing I love about the teaching profession is the need to be a lifelong learner. Personal reflection on your teaching practices helps you make improvements for future students in your classroom and for your own experience as well. It helps for personal and professional growth, and is a great starting point for setting new goals for the new school year to come.

Below are 30 end of year self-reflection questions for you to ask yourself. You do not need to share it with anyone else, just be brutally honest with yourself (I know that can be hard sometimes), but don't be too hard on yourself either (don't beat yourself up over mistakes and flaws, instead think of those experiences as opportunities to grow and learn). I hope you find these questions helpful during your reflection time, and if you would like to see any other questions added to this post let me know or comment below.

So grab a cup of tea, pick up a little treat, take a few deep breaths and reflect . . .  

1. What were some of your proudest professional moments this year?
2. What areas do you feel like you have grown and improved as a teacher?
3. What would you have liked to see yourself do more of this year?
4. What teaching/learning challenges did you face during this year?
5. How did you overcome those challenges?
6. What were your biggest behavior challenges this year?
7. What strategies did you try to correct negative behaviors? What worked and what didn’t?
8. What would you do the same/ differently next year to manage behaviour?
9. Who was your most challenging student and why?
10. What caused you the most stress/frustration this year?
11. How did you handle the stressful and frustrating times?
12. What do you think you could do next year to minimize stress?
13. What would you do the same next year? 
14. Do you feel like you gave all of your students the best opportunity to grow and learn this year?
15. Which students do you think grew the most in your class? How?
16. What mistakes did you make this year? How can you avoid making them again next year?
17. What were the strengths of the strategies you used this year?
18. What strategies or approaches were not so successful? What were the outcomes and why do you think they didn't work?
19. How do you think students have benefited from being in your classroom this year?
20. What was a negative situation that you faced this year and handled in a positive way?
21. What are some new steps or strategies that you would like to try next year?
22. What opportunities did you give for your students to display what they know/learnt?
23. What were some of your students’ favorite activities this year? Which motivated and engaged them the most?
24. In what ways did you make your lessons suitable for 21st Century Learners?
25. What were some important tips or ideas that you learnt from collaborating with other teachers?
26. If you had to rate the difficulty for getting through this year personally, 1 being easy and 10 being ‘barely survived’, what rating would you give? Why?
27. What would you differently next year compared to this year?
28. How do you feel about your experience in the classroom this year? Did you enjoy it or did you find that you were always looking forward to the home bell?  
29. If you had to ask your students to give you feedback on your teaching, what responses do you think you would get? (You could even ask students to write feedback for you).
30. What are your goals as a teacher for next year?

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