It won't be long now and I'll be back in the classroom. For weeks, I have been pouring time, thought, and creativity into my direction for this coming year.
At the end of this last school year, I was ready to walk away from middle school. I thought I'd had enough. I heard internal whisperings I needed a new direction. I misinterpreted this at first, thinking I needed to leave my school. But in short order, I realized otherwise.
Things are changing in a great direction for me, as it turns out. I will be getting a Creative Writing class back. (YAY!)
Thankfully, I have escaped the scripted program that had me down the last couple years, no matter how many times I felt I rose above it. I wasn't rising. I was merely tolerating, and I know that now.
I will be back to teaching almost exclusively 7th graders, which is fine with me.
Many things have pointed me in the direction I need to go. First, the less than stellar curriculum needs a lot of help to make it work. Second, the behavior issues caused by a multitude of reasons (not the least the poor curriculum), need to be addressed in innovative ways.
Then synchronicity! Recently, I went with my husband to his periodontist and ran into a former student who worked there. She recognized me, and then it brought back a flood of memories. Brittany was in my English 3 Honors, one of my favorite courses to teach as it focused on American Literature.
When I got home, I recalled that Brittany was probably in a "thank you" video her class had made for me. And sure enough, I watched it again and saw all those faces and heard all their comments about how much they liked the activities we did in class, how it helped them grow.
Running into Brittany was serendipity for sure. It was like a confirmation to me that my chosen direction was the right one.
It reinforced what I had already decided: I need to get back to the way I used to teach. The way before Chromebooks took over and COVID made Google Classroom the be-all and end-all, as well as the overload of computerized programs that are required of our learners. ENOUGH!
Little by little I've been pulling what I call my "greatest hits," and figuring out ways to implement. TP CASTT for poetry. The mentor text sequence to dig into meaning and connotation and create summaries. Reciprocal teaching to unpack a text together. DEAN (description, explanation, argument, narrative) to discover how a writer creates a piece. Socrative Seminars for chewing on text. Defend, Challenge, Qualify for debating. Time dedicated to independent reading choices with worthwhile activities. Projects galore!
And always...ALWAYS...working collaboratively. One thing I know...just one year away from being able to work with each other during the pandemic year crippled our learners, and trying to get that back has felt like more effort than it's worth. But I am devoted to making it happen, even if it takes months to click in. I am stepping away from "fill-in-the-blank" education which has caused many to give as little thought as possible to what they were doing. Now we will be back to looking at each other, and listening, and considering ideas and perspectives, and how to give voice to those in writing.
I consider this year as a celebration of the teacher I am deep in my core. I want to take what I'm given (which is NOT scripted!) and spin it into gold. My plan is to report here when I pull on former ideas I haven't used in a while, and reflect on the process.
There is much more on my mind, but I will leave this here. Just know that when it comes to #Year20, I am committed 100%. I haven't been this excited about a school year since 2019.
It's about time!
