Ambitions...

I certainly have goals for my teaching moving forward. I came from a time when there was more chalk and talk and I am aware that my default teaching mode is similar to that. My main goal is to have more discovery based and project based learning in my class. This year I am trying to introduce more of this in the class. At the same time I am trying to release a bit more power to the class. This will be a fine balancing act. There are standards for the content kids should know, and thus giving too much power to the class may mean that we go off in tangents from the material unless I am careful, but I think encouraging curiosity has to be an important part of my work as a teacher. If they have no interest in learning they will not succeed going forward. I have seen some recent success with this. In some literacy exercises, when we close read articles, my worksheets have ended asking students what questions they now have, and for them to read an associated article of their choice and mention three things they learn from that. I have been pleasantly surprised with some of the responses they have to these questions. I hope to continue having these exercises.
Recent projects have been met with mixed success. I had a project where students had to create a stop motion video of the process of mitosis. The projects were poor at best with little actual care shown, and the tests were also poor. So that will go in the fail column. I am trying to develop a project about grasses which will lead into evolution and ecology, where students will take the lead. I think I will be able to steer the project so we cover the required concepts but I will keep you posted when it happens.
I spend a lot of time wondering about how I model behavior and what that means to the students. It seems a strange thing to ask but what is my actual goal. Every day I am in front of students who may be hungry, tired as they have not a proper bed to sleep in, or emotionally drained due to parents being sick or in the throes of a nasty divorce. All of these students require different things from me in the short and long term, and how to consolidate my actions to be as present and helpful to them is quite a conundrum. My experience is just that, mine! So how to know what is best in a myriad of situations with an infinite number of scenarios is near impossible. I am working with a group in school who are discussing Leadership with a visiting speaker and I hope the discussions and workshops will help me be a better person myself and therefore better able to show a safe successful path to others.

It’s a long road…

Thanks