Sunday, February 23, 2014

Completing The Circle of Sharing in Teaching

"Sharing, Sharing, Sharing" was a bulleted item in a recent Twitter list of tech habits teachers ought to have. Thanks for the reminder, I thought as I read it, but most of us have been taught that since way back when we all sat on our listening rugs in kindergarten. Sharing, we learned, is always important and is even sometimes rewarded with a pink sugar heart imprinted with magic words "Please" and "Thank You!".

When I was a new adjunct instructor, two communication arts instructors helped me survive my first classes. They freely passed along ready-made PowerPoints, creative narrative essay assignments and classroom activity handouts. They were also there to answer my countless and repetitive questions. At first I was shy about approaching two "real" full-time instructors, but was made to feel at ease when I was greeted by name with a smile and friendly word. They are the ones who welcomed me into the teaching profession. Sure, I ran across some curmudgeonly-inclined instructors who never look up from their steps and hold their lesson plans closer than their coffee-stained "Greatest Teacher" mugs. I still do, but they are the sad exceptions, not the rule in this business.

When I became a "real" instructor, other veteran teachers volunteered to teach a room of us bright-eyed newbies during our pre-semester boot camp. They openly shared tricks and traditions of the trade: keeping the syllabus efficient and correct, managing students who are having a particularly bad day, and showing us how to use WIDS, the massive state instructional support system. Each new instructor was also assigned a mentor by the college who helped tighten the nuts and bolts of our work and, more important, gave us the context of our work: answering questions about the culture and expectations within the profession.

Later, my mentors grew beyond the college boundaries as I was sent to state-sponsored classes in adult literacy techniques (STAR), adult numeracy theory (ANI) and adult basic education. Through these classes, my shared examples tapped classrooms of talented teachers across the state. And, on occasion when the college has seen fit to send us to regional and national conferences, the cross-pollination of shared ideas extends across a national range of advice, activities, programs and campuses. Whatever we find through these opportunities, we are prodded to share, share, share with colleagues.

Now that I have a few years under my teaching belt, the sharing roles have shifted a bit. I still learn a great deal from others informally and through conferences, but am now being called upon to nurture and support the work of adjuncts and colleagues. It's flattering but a responsibility that gives me pause.  So I guess the professional circle is complete as I carry on the practice of sharing that helped me so many students ago. The lessons I have learned do no good to others locked up in three-ring binders on my office shelf. I learned that way back in kindergarten.

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.