- Starting at a new school is both exciting and scary. It's exciting because of all the shiny glittery new potential that's there, but also scary because I fear I won't be able to do all of the things I used to do. I worry about losing my PBL units and my standards-based grading ideas and my "do the lab before the content stuff" madness, because I'm worried about being seen as an educational loose cannon.
- I need to stop worrying about being a loose cannon and just do what I know is right for students and their learning. Being seen as that crazy lady who does school differently isn't necessarily a bad thing.
- I could hug all of the curriculum maps they gave me. I know (almost) everyone hates curriculum mapping, but boy is it useful to a person just coming in to a district. I know where I'm going in all of my classes this year, and that's a good feeling.
- However, I feel a little limited. There are already predetermined activities set for the course on which I was working, and I'm feeling boxed in by having to use them. (Background: the district at which I currently teach has two high schools, and the curriculum and activities are, from what I understand right now, expected to be pretty common between them.) Don't get me wrong, these activities are all good stuff, and I was told I could tweak them as I went along. But, I am unsure if I am allowed to add or take away anything.
- So I decided that I would use the predetermined activities differently. I realized a lot of them were very good at giving kids practice at essential science/thinking skills, so instead of assigning them bit by bit for homework I decided to set up learning stations around them. Students will learn by doing, processing and making meaning in-class rather than outside of class. Then I used other activities (after some minor adjustments) as opportunities to apply those thinking skills.
- I planned an entire unit and there wasn't a single lecture in it. I don't mean that in a "Look at me I'm so hip because I didn't plan a single lecture" kind of way. When I looked over my plans for the next month, it was just something I noticed - that I'm still in the habit of planning for learning, not for what information I will give students with activities and homework assignments that supplement a PowerPoint. I still believe that learning happens when I shut-up, so that means students have to be doing the work of learning. They're the ones that have to learn it, so they have to have opportunities to work on the skills and work with the information-so we need to plan for those opportunities.
- I am very excited about my new District. The culture appears to be very healthy, innovations are happening all across the district, and it looks pretty likely that 1:1 classrooms are in the near future. The students are held to high expectations and I've been told that they rise to the challenge. I am very much looking forward to our first day with students.
Any other musings you have about your start to the new school year? Please feel free to share in the comments.
