Teaching and Reflecting

I spent a fair amount of time today writing “reflective and guided narrative” statements as part of my first evaluation at my day teaching job. While some of the questions were a bit difficult for me to think about, I think it was very helpful for me to think about patterns in both my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. There are many memoirs about “teacher-saviors,” the kind that get made into movies and feature the lone warrior-teacher who rescues entire classrooms full of students, but there’s not quite as much writing done about the daily work of teaching. I’m continually surprised at just how much work it takes, physically, mentally, and emotionally, to be a good teacher.

In these busy times, I haven’t been doing very much reading for pleasure, although I did reread Bridget Jones’ Diary for some comic relief. I hadn’t read the book in a long time, but had seen the movie several times since and forgotten just how blackly funny and witty the book really is. I’ve been reading a lot of lesson plans and brushing up on the basics, while I also work on setting up my gradebook program for the fall term. I also read a few of the new books I’ll be teaching this semester in my college course: The Wisdom of Crowds and Millennial Makeover, which is about politics and new media. I’m really glad I chose both and feel very satisfied with how I’ve set my syllabus up thus far.

The beginning of a new year or semester always involves so much set-up and organization, and I keep trying to remind myself that I won’t be spending this much time on prep and development issues once the year starts. Still, there is also part of me that really enjoys designing new lessons, exploring new texts, and of course– meeting new students!