Today rounded out a very frustrating week of teaching. Let me clarify that last statement. Teaching was great this week, but dealing with the conflicting ideologies of our department, well most the school, and those of our "master teachers". I taught a lesson today in English 12 where we analyzed a non-fiction opinion article from the Indianapolis Star where the students were pull out the pieces where the author is showing support for his argument and providing relevance to the reader. We have done activities such as this all semester long, and we just analyzed another piece of persuasive writing last week. I read through a couple paragraphs with my class and pulled out the pieces where I found the author doing the above techniques. After that I had them finish reading the article and pull out the pieces on their own, then they discussed their findings with a partner, and finally we shared out as a class. During one of my lessons, a "master teacher" stopped by to see how my modeling was going. With this being day 46 of a 60 day instructional day semester, I found it was time to pull back a little from my students, to take off the training wheels, and to see if they could ride for themselves. Apparently, my lesson wasn't very effective because I didn't hold their hands and show them on the SMART Board what I would underline or highlight. My question was at what point in the year, and keep in mind these are seniors, do we pull back the hand-holding and expect them to have a certain knolwedge of skills? Do we show them every single task every single time until the day we hand them a diploma? At what point do we have high expectations and academic rigor for our classes? How is constant hand-holding this late in the semester preparing these kids for college? By this point in the semester, and with this being their senior year, I have expectations of my students and they should be able to do these tasks. I asked today, and also two days ago, where the line is between modeling and expectations for our students, and I did not receive an answer. I believe my students need to be expected to be able to do some tasks, especially a task I have modeled and they have done throughout the semester, without me modeling how to highlight or underline. My department agrees with me, actually every teacher I have talked to in the building agrees with me, except for the four who are in charge of our professional development. It feels like Groundhog Day here sometimes.
To end the day, on the last period of a no prep white day, one of the four horsemen came in to do my unannounced observation. I had a response that probably shouldn't be reproduced on here when I saw him enter my room. Anyway, I did the song and dance that they want because my job depends on it, but it was just not the way I wanted my day to end.
No comments:
Post a Comment