This week’s activities were by far the most challenging for me, and I think this whole program has been quite rigorous! Why has it been so challenging? I think with my years of teaching experience I have been able to relate the things I have learned with Teach Now to the real life experiences I’ve already had. It was relevant and current for me to practice things like classroom management or the culture of schooling. However when it comes to legit lesson planning or unit mapping I feel completely out of my depth. Going through this 3 step process of
* backwards mapping (see previous post)
* creating SMART objectives (SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, targeted)
I have learned a lot. It was immensely helpful once I got down to the SMART objectives phase. I feel like creating those goals and objectives really helped me to break down my bottom line goals (the presidencies I want my students to reach) into bite sized realistic steps for my students to follow.
As I stop to consider the value that these 3 steps have on my teaching, I am left with the problem of time. I can’t imagine how a teacher is supposed to do all of this with all of the standards within any amount of reasonable time! I can see that after a year or two you may be able to come up with a more substantial base from which to draw these details from, but then again the field is always changing and I as a teacher will need to adapt to those changes. So my primary feeling is…. Tired. Ha. I know that teachers have such important jobs and it’s more of a life to be lived, not a job to get done. However I just can’t seem to wrap my head around how this will all be possible for one person.
Despite my concerns of time management, I do really think that this exercise was beneficial for me to do. I think it really forced me to think about what I want my students to ultimately be able to produce and how I can best help them to reach those goals. I think it will be more beneficial when I can practically apply these theories to the classroom some day in the future. For now it all feels very theoretical because I don’t have a specific outlet in which I can practice these things. I know that this will change very soon, and I’m looking forward to that learning experience very much.
Curious Katrina 