Lesson #1: Agenda

Happy Canada Day!

It has been a while since I've written, but I have a decent excuse: I started my program!  My current courses are Adolescent Psychology, Foundation of Education, and Modern American History from a Global Context.  All are interesting, but with the term only lasting five weeks, it is a lot of work in a short amount of time.  So, I've been reading nearly 750 pages a week and have plenty of writing to do as well.  In fact, as soon as I finish this post I'll be going back to reading "Taking Haiti" by Mary Renda.

This is not why I am writing today, though.  I am excited to say that for the first time, I will be using this blog for its original intended purpose!!!  I have made a mistake and learned a lesson.  Huzzah.

This past week I was asked to facilitate part of my Foundations of Education course in cooperation with a couple of my classmates.  We took it very seriously and created a thorough lesson plan that addressed several key aspects from the readings.  We provided a variety of different activities to address the class as a whole, in small groups an individually.  We implemented various methods of teaching to convey messages to different types of learners.  I don't want to hurt my arm patting myself on the back, but I think we did a pretty darn good job for a first attempt.

So, where was my mistake, you say?  Right at the beginning.  At the start of the class we dove right into our first activity.  From there we continued straight through without a hitch.  The problem?  We never gave the students an idea of the plan that we had worked out so carefully.  We did not give a schedule for the day or any sense of our expectation for the flow of the conversation.  Essentially, we gave the students all of the meat, but no skeleton to hang it on.

Henceforth, I will remember to put together a simple slide or write an agenda on the board at the beginning of class.  It should not be so detailed that there is no room for adjustment to flow, but it is beneficial to at the very least demonstrate to the students that you do have a plan.

First Step Taken!

Well, I am back from my interview, and it went quite well. Upon arriving at the school I met the department chair and was given a brief tour of the facilities. Area High School* has quite nice facilities, I was impressed with the size of the classrooms all around (even though the math and science labs are much larger than the humanities). While we were walking around we had a chance to chat a bit an I was amused to learn that what attracted her to my resume was not what I consider to be the "exciting" parts of my background (international experience, college admissions, etc.) but in fact, the more mundane aspects like the fact that I went to college near where her family was from. It struck me that you never can completely project your own idea of "interesting" onto someone else. More on that to come.

Following the tour, she showed me the Social Studies office. Yep, they have an actual office for the department, complete with cubicles for each teacher and a large table for meetings and lunch. Pretty sweet. There I got the chance to meet with several members of the department and was getting some positive vibes from the group as a whole. They seemed serious about their work, but not overwhelmed. Considering that this is AP exam season, I take that as a good sign of the overall tension level in the office.

It was now time for me to meet with Tom*, the teacher who stood the greatest chance of being my mentor-teacher for the next year. Tom moved to teaching later in his career and has only been in the profession for about five years, but he seems to have hit the ground running and certainly held the respect of his colleagues. He currently teaches American Studies, International Relations, and Current Events. I was thrilled to get the chance to join him for his morning Current Events group and the afternoon IR class.

The Current Events class was just as he had initially described: additional instruction time without strict course mandates. It was actually a bit refreshing to see high school students having the time to delve into the news and gain even a modicum of understanding of whats happening around them. As can be expected from such an open-ended class, there was a variety of interests present and it was nearly a fool's errand to expect every student to pay attention to every word. I was impressed by Tom's ability to allow some inattention from the students without feeling the need to interrupt his own instruction to reprimand what wasn't really that disruptive. By not singling out the students, he left the door open for them to reengage with the class when the topic changed to one more up their alley.

Which brings me to my first real observation. We discussed three topics: the death of Osama bin Laden, the electronic security breach at Sony, and a set of political art pieces taken from an article in the New York Times supplement for teens. I expected students to be very interested in the bin Laden story because of its presence at the top of the news right now, and some certainly were. But some of the students begged out because they were too young to properly grasp the emotions on 9/11. Conversely, the stealing of credit card data from Sony seemed dry and uninteresting to me, but every student was facing forward and participating for the entirety of that discussion. While some of that may be attributed to the nature ebb and flow of teenage attention spans, it is important for me to remember that students may be interested in topics that bore me, and vice versa.

Following the Current Events course, Tom I returned to the staff room and worked on a simple lesson plan for his International Relations course. I got a bit lucky in that the topic was an introduction to theories of armed aggression, right in my wheelhouse. I was able to put forward a few helpful suggestions and then got the pleasure of watching Tom those into an effective class for some very bright and motivated students. I know that a lot of that image reflects on the teacher's ability to capture and hold the interest of the class, but I can still hope that I find students that willing to engage in the material thoughtfully.

Finally, I parted ways with Area High School and returned home. After sending a thank you note to the department chair, I received a fairly quick response saying that they would love to have me and that Tom like to be my mentor! What luck!

So, it looks like I'll be spending the next academic cycle as a student at Education University and a student-teacher in the Social Studies department of Area High School! Huzzah!

By the way, thanks to everyone who provided their suggestions regarding my last post. I wore a suit and think that it was the right choice. I was certainly more dressed up than the staff, but nobody batted an eye at my formality and if anything I may have scored points for professionalism. Thanks!!!!

*Names changed to protect identities.