#3 in the Summer 2012 Blogging Challenge (two posts each week)
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| Do I get training wheels? |
This fall I will test out this theory in a big, scary way. I will return to classroom for the first time sine June 2003! I am not leaving the principalship, I am merely (!) adding teaching to my duties. I am going to teach 6th Grade Social Studies at Wolcott Elementary School. Doing this will free up the 5/6 LA/SS teacher to do some intense intervention work with struggling readers, and it will let me be a teaching principal.
The way I figure it, teaching is like riding a bicycle; I should have no problem getting back in the classroom after nine years. I learned tons in my eight years teaching. Since then, I have learned tons more about teaching and education in general. I know that kids need engaging curriculum, choices to help motivate, high expectations, authentic assessments to show what they a really learning, great options for sharing their work, true standards-based grading, and a technology infused experience since it really is the 21st Century.
Of course, in 2003, Powerpoint was exciting classroom technology. I used Microsoft Publisher, too. I even made my own page of links so that the students wouldn't have to spend time searching irrelevant sites (other lessons covered a little of how to judge sites).
In 2003, I think that I'd heard of standards-based grading. I gave zeros, though. I figured that if the kids wanted to, they would do the work. It was their responsibility to be "enrolled" as Ben Zander would say. I taught, they learned. Or did they?
Back then, I had high expectations, for most kids. Were my goals high enough for all kids? Did I even set reasonable expectations for kids? Oy.
I'd planned on posting student work to my website (I really did have one), but district policy forbade any interaction of student and Internet other than searching. Oh.
So, as I prepare my class to begin in the fall, I will have no problem right? I will just get back on the bicycle of teaching and ride away, right?
After all, teaching is just like riding a bicycle, right?
Right?
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It isn't quite like riding a bike. You've been teaching for the last 17 years, in one instance as a classroom teacher, and in another as an administrator. You will be a far better teacher than you were before. You've got the big picture.
ReplyDeleteThere will probably be parts that are harder than you thought, but I bet you will feel like such a better teacher. You'll also be a better administrator because you'll have a better understanding of exactly what your teachers are dealing with.