Nutshell

Write a one-two page reflection on your experiences thus far this year as a teacher. How is it going? What is going well? What are your goals for after the holidays with your students? For yourself as a teacher? How are your students doing in terms of tracking and your "big goal" for the year?

This first semester of teaching is in many ways reminiscent of my first trip out to Durham. I normally enjoy driving and being alone with my music or podcasts and the open road. Nothing about that trip was normal, however. I got stuck on the Indianapolis beltway for three hours due to a three-car accident. It poured to the point of whiteouts in Ohio. The mountains of West Virginia made my move feel ominous and permanent, with each hillcrest creating another boundary between my past life and my current life.

In much the same way nothing about this semester has been normal. I was sexually harassed by a student. I found many of my high schoolers at a 3rd or 4th grade reading level. My school’s leadership is often completely lacking, and we as a teaching staff are left to fill in the gaps. I’m enjoying teaching world history more than Civics. I don’t have textbooks or teaching manuals. There are no second years to look to for guidance.

All abnormalities aside, I am generally very pleased with how the semester has progressed. Most of my students are meeting our big goal (HS - Pass Civics with a C or better; MS - Pass Social Studies with an 80% or better), I feel I have been able (most of the time) to keep my expectations for my students set high with out overwhelming them. After arguments, debates, and many consequences, I feel my classroom culture is - finally - almost to the level of comfort and safety my boys need to learn.

I could improve on the quality of my daily lesson plans and the amount of practice I am giving my students. I need to continue building my sense of what is a feasible amount of knowledge for my kids to learn in 45 minutes a day, to keep my units and long-term plans better on track (I’m starting Econ today, about three weeks from the EOC). I need to become better organized and ensure I am using my time outside of my 7:30-6:30 school day as effectively as I can.

One of my biggest goals for next semester is to increase the amount of literacy instruction in my classroom. A major help for this is that I have textbooks for two of my three preps next semester to draw on for readings for students to practice with. I also have three other teachers at my school who are very effective at teaching literacy, and I can tap them for ideas or build on what they have already been working on with students.

This post was initially written as an assignment for my certification class.