How Did You Grow and Change This School Year?

The 2023-24 academic year is coming to a close, and we have a post describing 10 ways to reflect on these last months and learn from them. But the 10 ways aren’t just for students — we also hope teachers can benefit from them. In fact, we would be delighted if teachers and students did some of the exercises together and told us what happened!

We invite you to post a comment reflecting on any aspect of this school year that you would like to make public, and we have provided some questions below to get you started.

We hope, too, that you will not only post your own reflections but also comment on the thoughts of others. As always, our staff will moderate comments, and we can’t wait to learn from you.

Students and teachers, read our related list of reflection ideas from which the questions below are drawn and then answer any of them that resonate with you. Please identify yourself as a teacher or a student when you post.

• What do you want to remember about this school year? Why?

• What are you especially grateful for this year? To whom would you most like to write a letter of gratitude if you could?

• What surprised you?

• What successes are you most proud of?

• What challenged you? What helped you face or overcome those challenges?

• What did you learn that most matters to you, whether in or out of school?

• What new skills, however small, did you acquire?

• How have you grown — as a student, a friend, a community or family member or a person?

• How could you build on that growth next year?

• What would you like more of in your life? What would you like less of? Why?

• What music would be on a soundtrack of the 2023-24 school year for you? Why?

• What books did you read this year that you would recommend to others? Why?

• About what, if anything, did you change your mind? How did that happen?

• If you were to collect and graph some data about your life this school year, what would you choose to graph, and what do you think it might show? What could you learn from it?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.