It has been a very long time since I've written. I'll explain briefly that life threw me a few monkey wrenches that got in the way of my teaching career and I was out of the field for a couple of years. Now, I find myself back in a teaching position and the time away has definitely meant some perspective shifts. I was just re-reading some old blog entries and some of them seem naive, but some of them make me long for the days when I saw teaching as a really, truly noble calling and a public service. Lately, I've just been seeing it as a job.
So I want to resurrect this blog and get myself thinking and, hopefully, talking about teaching on a more critical level again. For right now, I'll just start out with a brief description of my current teaching situation.
In September of this year, I accepted a long-term substitute position teaching ninth-grade English for an online charter school. My sections are asynchronous, which means that the students work at their own pace on pre-designed units. All of their readings and assignments are designated in the curriculum and can't be altered. However, I teach each section once each week. The purpose of these "live session" each week is to reinforce skills that are missing in the curriculum and to provide extra help to struggling students. I can basically teach anything I want in these lessons as long as it doesn't directly reference anything in the students' independently-paced curriculum (since the units/lessons can be completed in any order the students want), and as long as it reinforces the PA Common Core standards--in particular, the ones that the pre-designed curriculum addresses the least.
There are a lot of challenges that go along with this kind of teaching, but there are benefits as well. One benefit is that I have a tremendous amount of non-instructional time in my day. I teach six sections a week, at one hour each, so that's six hours a week of instruction. This means I have a great deal of time to offer tutoring (that students rarely take advantage of), contact students and parents, plan my lessons, etc.
I also work for a district that I've found phenomenal at respecting and acknowledging teachers. There is a great opportunity for collaboration. I am free to seek advice from academic advisers, my supervisor, and my peers. Everyone who I've approached and asked for guidance has been truly helpful.
Still, there are challenges. Since the students only meet once a week, there is little sense of community. Since they are coming to class online, it's often challenging to gauge their level of engagement. And since I don't have control over their assignments and can't refer to the reading materials in the unit, I have a difficult time connecting the lessons to one another or making the classes seem relevant at all.
I also have a big mix of ability levels in my classes. Most of the high-achievers (as measured by their grades and their pacing) do not attend. Students with high scores and who are on pace are exempt from the lessons. Still, some of those A students do come to class. I also have students who have yet to start their independent work. Some students are failing in a major way. Some students have reading disabilities. It's hard to plan relevant instruction for all students.
Anyways, I have a lot of questions as a first-year teacher in a new environment. I'd love as much feedback as possible. My goal is to make my instruction both effective and relevant to all students. I don't know if I'll ever get there, but this is the beginning of my attempt, and I could use all the help I can get!
