Sunday, February 16, 2014

The First Time Through

Huzzah, another week in the can.

For those of you not in the teaching trade that phrase means, "Woo hoo, I have completed next week's lesson plans on Sunday afternoon, not Sunday night, 24-hours before Monday's class walks in." Not the ideal time-line for a teacher, but better than walking into a class with the top three objectives scrawled on a post-it-note clipped to an unopened textbook. I've preached from post-its in a pinch, but that is not the preferred pedagogical practice. It's better to have the beginning, middle and ending of the course neatly organized in color-coded three-ring binders before the class roster is finalized. It's better to have individual lessons themed, planned out and fully prepared. It's better to have handouts at hand.

In past years I could comfortably move from subject to lesson to student, adjusting teaching to meet the expectations of the GED test and the learning abilities of the student. I was quite good at it -- achieving a consistent 90-percent success rate. This January all that changed when the GED 2002 test series was replaced with a new 2014 series. Now, GED instructors weren't caught unawares. We've known about the change for the past two years, but we spent most of last 12-months recruiting, instructing and pushing 2002 students into finishing off their credential, not prepping for the 2014 version. We focused on those students who needed our help the most. Later would come later. So now we pay in Sundays.

When I started teaching, I was told by an experience instructor that it takes three turns to settle into a class. The first time through, you are just trying to get your head around the new material and keeping a week or two ahead of the students. The second time through, you add too many extras to the first class -- all those great ideas that you had, but didn't have time to prepare for the first go-through. Second lessons become a bit bloated. The third time, you have the class structure in hand, know what works and what does not work, and feel free to add and delete according to the situation.

Right now, I am four weeks into the first time through.

I am sure that in a year, once I have track record of comparing curriculum taught to GED tested, once I have settled into a new structured class routine, and once I am comfortable with new texts, materials and set-up, all will be well. I will be able to focus on the students rather than worry about when I am going to insert a Venn Diagram of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.

All will be well, I keep telling myself. Material will be covered in digestible, flipped chunks. Students will succeed and transition to gainful employment and college programs, and my teaching practice will begin to approach the expectations that I have of my work. All will be well.

But, in the meantime, I need to start thinking about the science section of week five.




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