Tuesday

I was talking with a colleague today about being inundated with all this new curriculum and the whizz and bang features of it. For whatever reason(s), we didn’t get the supplies until a few days prior to school. And in some cases we are still getting some things (several boxes of hardcover novels arrived yesterday). Other things (such as our beloved projectors) are on the horizon - maybe by the 22nd Century? Maybe if our BST scores in writing were lower we’d have them already? Just think what we could do with them! But that’s crazy talk I guess.

I spent a lot of my curriculum planning time (for which I was paid) devising what to teach from the sample texts available. But this was frustrating because I didn’t need to spend a lot of time on that. What I needed to spend a lot of time on was all the technology that goes with that. Yet, the curriculum hours were due the day the new supplies came in. SOL.

As I experiment with all of this technology I can’t help but think of the methods class I taught in graduate school. The professor and I were all fired up to talk about theory and methods, but all the students wanted to focus on were lesson plans and doing neat things in class. They were sweating the small things while we were trying to get them to see the larger picture. I wish the students could have been exposed to this technology because it makes building a lesson plan quite simple. Pop in a CD, download the software, open the proper class, find the right file, click, drag, and in about a minute you can build a test, a lesson plan, reading strategies, and whatever you want.

This is great, for it will allow me to focus on the big things, but right now I’m not familiar enough with all the things to click on and drag and open to build all the lessons and tests as efficiently as I know I will be able to. And that is really frustrating.

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My classes continue to be great. Or is it just me? Or a combination of the students and me? The honeymoon of fall and being back to school hasn’t worn off yet, for either of us. So things are going well. But it seems like winter sets in and the struggles begin. But is it me? My classes? The students? Or all things combined? Maybe my classes are always great and I just get bogged down and don’t appreciate them. Maybe my classes goof off too much and don’t appreciate the work I put in (I’ve already noted on some essays that my responses to them are longer that the essays themselves)? I don’t know. I guess I’ll just enjoy things while they last.

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Kristie and I are total football junkies. Two weekends ago we realized our DirecTV plan includes -at least for now - the Big Ten Network. So we were able to see one of the biggest upsets in college football history, Appalachian State over Michigan (in the Big House even!). At one point, as Appalachian State relinquished a huge lead and were driving for the go ahead field goal, we were both riveted. Then when they scored and Michigan drove down the field for a final gasp at pulling the game out, Kristie literally jumped off the couch when Appalachian State blocked the field goal attempt to preserve the upset. Gotta love it.

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In little over a week - I’m guilty of stalling - I have to teach “The Crucible.” Only problem - I haven’t read beyond the first 1/3. Part of me is quite worried about this. But part of me wants to seize this as a teachable moment. I often think it’s unfair when teachers talk about novels that they have read 100 times. I can only imagine what my students think when I talk about “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which I have read more than any novel. “A Separate Peace” is a close second, though I stopped teaching that several years ago. I can talk about the novel fluently, yet I forget they are seeing it for the very first time. If I keep that in mind, it is still difficult for me to really understand what that is like. I remember reading it after student teaching and totally missing Miss Lafayette breaking her morphine addiction. Even now when I re-read it (usually twice a year), I still find new things. I bring these up to my students, but that probably does them little good when they are just struggling through the language of it, not to mention thinking about theme, symbols, and social context. No wonder they struggle.

But with “The Crucible,” here is my chance to struggle right along with them. I guess I might risk appearing lazy or unprepared (I’ll concede to the unprepared charge, but I don’t think anyone who has watched me teach or been part of a class can charge me with laziness. I really think both the students and I could learn so much from us both reading the text really for the first time together. This way I will struggle with them. I will make predictions like them. I will either enjoy it or be disappointed like them. What an opportunity. But it feels like a big risk, like I’m teaching blindly.

Fortunately, from the RRVWP I picked up a book called “Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies” by Jeffrey Wilhelm. I think most of what I would be teaching would be modeled after think a-loud practices. I would literally be modelling how I read and make meaning of a text. That sounds cool.