Propp’s Propaganda
High School English teacher discusses high school curriculum and student issues
Training
Today myself and some of my colleagues sat through six hours of training in regards to block scheduling. It was a beautiful day after two days of rain. Doesn’t that figure when I have some place to be all day inside! I must confess that much of my thoughts have been channeled toward next year and teaching classes for 84 minutes as apposed to 38 minutes! I couldn’t help but wonder what that kind of class would look like. I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around it. However, now, I feel a little bit better. Our trainer from BOCES gave us several tried and true strategies that we could work with. The best part was talking among ourselves and figuring out that we CAN do this! We were able to brainstorm our current ideas and lesson plans and dissect them in order to make them work for a longer class period. I have heard so many people tell me that I will just LOVE teaching on the block! I wasn’t that easily sold. After today, I realize that I am ready for a change and I am excited about changing the entire way that I run my class. I think it will be kind of exciting! Learning and change always keeps boredom at bay.
I was later informed that each of our class rooms will have a smart board! Oh, my! More new things!!! But I understand that this will make learning easier and more interactive with the students. If anyone has experience with the smart board, please share, because I don’t know anything about it. I look to my readers to share their knowledge.
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Carol,
I’m so glad to read your blog post about the training. I’ve no idea why I took a vacation day (well I do, my husband insisted) when all I did was worry about all of you and Theresa and if it was going well or not. I’m relieved to read this morning that it was worthwhile. I know each of you as excellent teachers and I believe this is going to be extremely worthwhile for you and our students. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get to more of the things that you love about learning through this extended time? Like your discussion groups and extended writing activities. And an opportunity to get kids excited about a book. BTW, I’m reading the second book by our Kite Runner author now–it’s wonderful.
Will be in all next week, please call so I can hear more about the staff development day!
Carol,
I’m very envious of you for having all this time with students. While I will have more time, it will be about 56 minutes, rather than 84. I think about all the times that I felt like I was rushing over students questions, and felt like I was plowing forward like a giant bulldozer just hoping to make it to the end without the bell ringing. I think about how much added stress that caused, and how I know it effected my teaching and my students. I too am a little afraid of how I will adapt to the added time. I’m hoping that it will afford me more time to give additional examples for clarity and for students to be allowed more time to think and engage in problem solving.
As for the smart board, I had one once, and because of lack of training had a hard time with it. I think that the technology behind the smart board has improved so much, which will help. I also think that you will be getting the support from Doug, that I didn’t get from the previous technology person when I first got the smart board.
I have a training next week Tuesday and Wednesday with my new department. They have a lot of smart boards that they received last year, and we will be working on learning from eachother and creating lessons using them. If I learn anything good, I will certainly share with you. There is so much that you can do with them as long as you are willing to adapt your style a little, which I know that you are.
Change certainly keeps us on our toes, doesn’t it.
Crystal
I loved block scheduling. I really wish it could be done at my current school, but apparently it’s a political hot button. No one will even speak of it.
It was much easier to teach concepts and work on them, while making sure that everyone “got it” and do all the other million things that need to be done during a class period. I’m a bit envious of you.
