Every summer, my schedule sees me use June and July pretty much for vacation and writing. As the calendar tips into August, I shift gears, spending part of each day beginning to prep for the coming school year. Teachers report back mid-month, with the students arriving a week later. We have four days to prep, with one used as an off-site retreat and half of one devoted to freshmen orientation. So, that’s not a lot of time to prep the classroom, lessons, and so on.
Instead of stressing myself, I make a long To Do list of things I need to set up, such as my Google Classroom and all the usual websites I use to supplement my teaching. Old classes get archived, and new ones are established. Master password sheets are created. Invitations and instructions are prepared. Once all the infrastructure is in place, I turn to the first few weeks of lessons.
My mother, a former teacher herself, and my brother recently expressed surprise that I don’t just recycle the lessons year after year.
Here’s the thing. The lessons don’t always work. Or find a better way to do something. As I lay out those first few weeks against the school calendar, I see which days might have shortened schedules for assemblies or mass and have to adjust accordingly.
I belong to several Facebook groups for teachers, and in the lively exchanges, I come away with new ideas to replace one lesson with another, which then needs to be built. I buy lessons from Teachers Pay Teachers and adapt them to my needs, often weaving them into existing work.
Last week, I read something in the English Journal, a publication from the National Council of Teachers of English, and scrapped a long-standing early lesson in favor of something I think will better address the same topic.
I felt I was rushing something with Native American literature, so I decided to add one more day and story. Finally, I got to use one author Rebecca Roanhorse recommended to me some time back. It felt so much better.
I certainly don’t want to teach the same lessons the same way year after year. That’s when I feel old to myself and, therefore, old to the students. I want to keep myself fresh and sharp and keep the students engaged, and the ways to accomplish that require consideration of each lesson.
By adding the Yearbook to my course load, I also have a steep learning curve, taking over from the previous advisor who had done the job for the previous 32 years. Those shoes are enormous, and I hope to fill them well enough. Today, as you read this, I am meeting with five seniors, taking the class a second time, and acting as my editors; we need the plan to make this work and put out a yearbook we, and my predecessor, can be proud of.
Of course, on top of all this, I am preparing for the next semester of teaching Making Graphic Novels at MICA. I’ve already been working with students on their proposed stories, even though class doesn’t begin until Aug. 28.
Welcome to the 2024-25 school year.
#Tags: English Journal, Google Classroom, NCTE, Rebecca Roanhorse, Teachers Pay Teachers, Yearbook