This past week has been thrilling. For the first time in YEARS, I had difficulty sleeping on Sunday night, in advance of the first real class. That Monday was my first experience teaching in a Block, an 80-minute class period. I really stressed over the pacing of the class period, and planned the heck out of it. In all honesty, it was the first class for which I wrote up a lesson plan … several, in fact!
I kept thinking, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail,” and – worse – I kept thinking about what happened three or four years ago. I’d gotten so wrapped up in helping others, in my role as EdTech, prepare for the new year, that I hadn’t prepared for my own class – and that first class was a horrible disaster of technology that didn’t work, a narrative that didn’t flow, and my unease and discomfort that infected the students.
Having planned, excessively, Monday’s class was smooth, fun, content-filled, and active for the students! There were two breaks for them to relax and reset their brains, and we got through everything that I’d hoped to. Later in the week, at a Senior Retreat training meeting, students said how quickly the class seemed to pass. That was a relief to hear.
The two hour-long classes that followed in the week proceeded similarly. Day 2 was more active for the students than Day 3 though – I need to watch out for that in the coming weeks.
Student iPads were okay – but not great. It was good that students were able to download PDFs of the lecture slides, and then write on top of those slides using Notability, UPAD, or Penultimate. There were other activities that we wanted to do, but those required Internet access … which was worse than inconsistent. Hopefully when the wifi issue gets resolved, we’ll be able to incorporate more online resources, and increase student activity that way.
All in all, I chalk the week up as a Win.