Pedagogy - Week 6

This is going to be a free form entry. I'm going to try not to edit my thoughts.

I've been thinking about my lesson plans for next week. Even on a "Fall Break", I am thinking about lesson plans. It's amazing how that part of the brain - the teacher part - never really turns itself off. It would be same if I was sitting on the beach or in a bar. Part of my brain is always churning through ideas. I really want to incorporate new things into my lessons. I am good an improvising - as a teacher you have to be. Even the best laid plans can be totally annihilated within ten minutes of class. This is one aspect of teaching I love. The X-factor. The unknown. It changes from student-to-student, class-to-class, and day-to-day. That being said, I always try to have something ready. Occasionally, I fail. We all do. And the kids pick up on it. Still, I think that failure is a lesson in and of itself. If I can model how to recover from a failure then, perhaps, my students will have some way to cope in the future if they, too, should fail. I've been trying to rework how I am going to teach poetry. Last week, I wrote about how the 10th literature teachers were teaching thematically instead of in the traditional structured units. I think I am going to talk to them on Monday about possibly teaching a little poetry before we work into the longer short stories and novel lessons. I really agreed with the point made in class that poetry is easier in that it is shorter and more concise. Perhaps, if we can work with our students moving from smaller forms of literature to larger forms, they will not feel so intimidated when presented with information. And if the other teachers aren't willing to listen, at least I have the freedom to restructure my small group classes. Just food for thought. Not sure if it made any sense but let me know what you think.