Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Teaching Teaching Teaching

So I am now a high school biology teacher! I got thrown into the mix last Monday and am teaching 5 sections of 9th and 10th grade biology. We have spent the last week on plants and will wind down with a test this friday. After a long labor day weekend we will start fresh with animals. And the students better be ready. My interest in teaching was peaked as a TA for the animal diversity lab, so the students are really getting my passion in the upcoming weeks. Im excited to give them a challenge as I hope to push them to some of the same standards I had for the animal diversity students.

I am also very excited because tomorrow (wednesday) I get to start sharing a little bit about me within the curriculum. We are discussing the effect of climate on plants and many of the pictures I will use in my mini-lecture are from my own travels. More importantly, some of those pictures are from Itasca! Hopefully they respond the material as well as I hope they do.

Otherwise, everything is going well. Classroom management is the most challenging part of the job, since it just takes time. Time for the students to get the procedures down. Time for me to learn how my students operate. Time for us all to get systems in place that best suit how we can learn together. But I am being patient and taking it one day at a time.