Since I started teaching umpteenish years ago, I have only been out of the classroom for six years. First, when I took off a year to start my Masters degree, then three years as Department Chair, and now two years working on a Fellowship with the Library of Congress. Being outside the classroom this time has allowed me to really indulge my curiosity and flex my writing muscles in ways I never have before, and I'm always happy to share what I learn with others.
This week, I've been working on a webinar that a colleague and I are making about teaching with primary sources. We presented our draft to another team member, who asked at the end, "So, what does this look like in your classroom? What advice do you have for how to implement these ideas?"
Oh. Right. With actual students.
I had a sudden flashback to when I was the department chair and not teaching any classes, but still expected to be the "instructional leader" for the department. At that time, I felt like I was losing touch with what it meant to be in front of students, and it's one of the reasons I returned to the classroom. Now, I've been away from the classroom again, and I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) that I'm sliding past thinking about the actual teaching experience. Again.
It was good to have this reminder, not only as I prepare for this webinar, but also as I approach the end of my Fellowship and look forward to returning to the classroom in August. All the content, strategies, and new ideas I have experienced won't go very far until I seriously consider what it all might look like, away from the sterile professional development environment and plopped down in the middle of a wonderfully personal, messy, and exciting classroom.
So I'm remembering using an individual to group to classroom discussion strategy for starting a Notice and Wonder routine. I'm thinking about the different colored sticky notes for students to write their reflections and questions on. And I'm reviewing all the checking for understanding routines I use to take the temperature of the class. Since the upcoming webinar I'm giving is not specifically about this kind of stuff, and it's difficult to model some of these strategies in a remote situation, I have to think creatively about how to at least tell the story of how I've used them.
But that's the beauty of teaching for me -- figuring out how to tell the story of my subject in such a way that the students become part of that story. Writing and presenting webinars about ways to tell the story continues to be fun. But actually getting my hands, heart, and imagination in contact with students is something special. It's far too easy to forget that (and too many people making decisions about education seem, like me, to forget).
It was good to be reminded.
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