Too much at once?

-

 I'm really excited about the new school year. After the last year and a half, I'm really looking forward to the return to some sort of normal. I get to teach 2 classes that I'm passionate about, chemistry and biology, and it's just looking to be a great year. I was telling a fellow teacher the other day, it feels like my first year teaching but this time I know what I'm doing. 

Having said all that, I can't help but think that I'm trying to do too much at one time. In fact, as I type this I realize that I am and that I need to just slow my role. Let's examine it a little bit. I am working on flipping my classes. Now this sounds like a rather daunting task but in honesty, when looking through the modeling curriculum I will be using for both of my classes, there is not a whole lot of lecturing that goes on so there really isn't that many videos that I will need to make. So it's really not a daunting as it first sounded. I am taking an online course and one thing that I really, really like about it is that is it helping me get organized for the year. I was determined this summer to have everything organized for the year so that I wasn't floundering like I have in the past and this flipping course is helping me do that, so yay!!!

Today I was watching a video on grading and it got me to thinking about the grades I give in my class. I know that some of them are inflated and nonsense, but I didn't really see anyway around that. One of the modelers using a form of standard based grading and I was thinking maybe I could do that too. And that's when I realized that I might be taking on too much and I honestly think I am. I don't really know much at all about standards based grading and there would be a steep learning curve to get it going and I don't want to spend the rest of my summer doing that. So I'm thinking that I will work on it during the year, maybe look at the grading as I go through the curriculum and see how I can adjust and adapt it to standards based. Also, I want to talk with my principal and get her views on it and make sure that it is okay to do that. Because the way our grading is set up I would have to convert some like 'needs work' or 'advanced' to a number/letter and that has to be carefully worked out before I make any effort to try it. I do think it would be a good project for me to work on over the year and maybe do it in the 2022-2023 school year. This summer I'm going to focus on organization and flipping. I do not have to solve all the worlds problems in one day. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A lot has happened

-
 After my last post, I sat and went through the modeling curriculum and worked out that I was in Unit 6 of modeling. No worries, I just jumped right in. We did a lab, always a good way to start things, and next week we work on naming compounds - that should be fun. Anyway, the point is I feel much more comfortable with the curriculum. I know what I'm doing and I'm able to guide them to the correct answers. We went back to whiteboards at the tables instead of the standing at the whiteboards. We presented and did a power clap and it was good. Classes went much smoother and I was much happier.  It really did wonders for my mental health too. I was not completely exhausted by the end of the day. I had energy when I got home. I actually felt like doing things. It was amazing. So I can conclude that my total exhaustion was most likely due to mental fatigue. Well, I'm sure starting working out again helped a lot.  So things are a whole lot better. I am taking next Monday off and I
Read more

1st day done

-
 Yesterday actually went very, very well. Initially I was worried how they would respond to the whole notebook thing, but they actually did pretty well. And 4th period??? OMG, that class was awesome. Absolutely awesome. A couple of students were moved out of that class and I had a very well thought out seating chart and man it made a huge difference. So that was good.  Now I was another story. I was so tired. Sooooooo tired. My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurt. I was a wreck. Then I came home and had to walk Mavy, ugh!!!! I did get things done though so that was good. But man, I was tired. Slept like a log last night.  The great thing about block schedule is that I get to do all that again today. Yay!!! The problem is that I get better and  better at it, so by the time I get to my last class, which will be the 6th time I've done that, I will be good and we will finish early. So I have to watch that.  Other than that, things are good. 
Read more

And we're back.....

-
 Today we are back to school. It's weird, this is my 13th year teaching and yet I still get the first day jitters. I kept waking last night and thinking about school today, usually things that could go wrong. It's just so funny that after all this time I still get nervous. Someone once said it's because I care and I guess that could be true. I do care about my teaching. It is something that I enjoy and take pride in and so yes, I care about how I do it and ultimately the outcome.  Today will be an easy day for them, and hopefully me. We are doing a sketchnote bootcamp. I want them to take ownership and pride in their notes and so we are going to spend the first day getting back into school and into sketchnoting. It will be good for most, but I know that I am going to get pushback from a few and that's okay, they can take the L when it comes to the notebook.  I'm not looking forward to the return only because it's work. We went to a friend's house yesterday f
Read more