It's that time of the year again. Time for M-Dawg to go back to school.
I'm actually looking forward to going back and seeing the kids and teaching. It's also nice to have a regular schedule again.
I've been working hard the past few weeks on the curriculum I'm co-writing for that new course that I'll be teaching in the spring semester called Current World Affairs. My colleague will be actually teaching the course the fall semester so hopefully she's get the kinks out it before I get to it in the spring. The course sign ups for the course are high - I hope that means that the course didn't become a dumping ground for students to fill their schedules. This new course has a lot of potential to be an educational elective course for our department so I hope it works out OK.
However, I'm a little stressed about this new class I'll be teaching called Salem in History. I don't have a lot of teaching materials for the class and with the exception of the Witch Trials, I don't know much about the local history in the area. I have a textbook for the class but there is only so much you can do with a textbook. I'm sure it will work out but I can't help but feel a little anxious about teaching a new class.
I've been bad with preparing for my World Studies classes too. I'm hoping to get some work done this week. Every summer, I always have these huge to do lists of how I'm going to go through each of my binders and clean them out and organize them. I also like to re-type some of my old files and put them on my computer so I have copies of them. That SO didn't happen this summer. The other three 9th grade World History teachers were supposed to finish (or should I say start) the curriculum for the class. I have this sneaky suspicion that they didn't write it. I really wanted to help write it but with my being away for most of the summer, it wasn't really fair for me or them.
One of my goals for this week is to go into school for a few hours (maybe on Tuesday morning) and try and set up my classroom a bit. I did go in twice already but it was just cleaning and moving desks around and lugging boxes and books. I'll try and remember to take before and after photos so you can see (hopefully) the improvement. Being I'm out in the modular, my classroom isn't that bad. I have A/C and heat which I can control. The space is actually rather nice in comparison to the classrooms in the main building - we are in construction so they building looks like a bomb went off inside. We (the freshman house) are supposed to be in the modular until the end of the school year and then we move back into the main building.
So, my goal for the week is to try and get my room organized, type up my first day handouts for my classes, and finish up the Current World Affairs curriculum. I'm aiming for a restful Labor Day weekend of not worrying about school work. :-)
2 comments:
Sounds like you need a personal assistant! And here I thought that teachers have a nice summer vacation ;)
Salem in History sounds interesting. Sort of like state history, but focused on one town. Hmmmmm....I'm sure you have objectives/standards. How long does the course last? All year?
I would make a matrix chart with all of the teaching standards. Then I would go through the textbook and list the page numbers where the standards are discussed.
Another thing I would do is visit the public library and hit the kid's section. Read every book concerning your topic.
Why kid's books? They are usually well written, fact oriented, and quick reads. When you discover a unique fact, a twist, anything you think is interesting add a note on your chart under the proper standard. You could also utilize the web for boning up on your subject matter, and while you are doing that you might locate some great websites for your students to use.
Post a Comment