Blindly Moving Forward
December 7, 2008 by mr. g
Teaching geometry during my first year felt like one long trial run. It was my first time teaching content, my first time encountering common misconceptions, my first time exploring what kind of lessons would be most engaging and effective. It was difficult to anticipate where we’d take a wrong turn, to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t. You kind of just keep moving forward blindly.
Teaching geometry a 2nd time around, you notice the difference. Your lessons slowly evolve. The lessons that turned awry the first time around are improved. The concepts you didn’t hit well become stronger. And those rare lessons that were gold are enhanced. I see it happening as I creep towards the midway point of my 2nd year, and I know that it has to only get better during year 3. A process of evolution.
The issue: This year I teach only 2 geometry classes. The other 3? Algebra.
Taking on a new prep feels like repeating the 1st year process all over again. And like I said before, Algebra is much more difficult to teach than Geometry, especially if it’s to a group whose propensity to the topic is virtually nonexistent.
I’m blindly moving forward, hoping some of this stuff will stick. Yet, looking back at these past 14 weeks, I can easily point to more than a handful of lessons that were downright horrible.
Introducing new material THE WRONG WAY is toxic. And you see it happening. You notice students chronically approach problems THE WRONG WAY as a consequence. You’re aware that some students can walk through the motions correctly but have NO CONCEPTUAL CLUE as to why they do what they do. You wish you could time travel back and change the way you did things the first time, but realize you’re weeks behind the curriculum pacing guide and… blindly… move… forward.
As a new teacher, I see no solution to this. Unless some vet walks me through each new topic daily, shedding light on every angle of every lesson, I’ll remain blind. It’s a process I must go through before becoming much improved during my second go round, a process every new teacher must face.
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Mr. G,
Do you write your own curriculum? I had to write mine for chem and it was (and still is) brutal. I’m beginning to think that 1st year teachers deserve more resources so that they can focus on learning to teach instead of learning what content to teach. The baby teacher gauntlet is too monstrous…agree? disagree?
Have a great week
I agree. I don’t think people realize the steepness of this learning curve. Ideally, new teachers should be granted easier schedules and more resources because they’re not only teaching, they’re LEARNING how to teach.
Then again, in joining a teacher program like TFA, OTF, or NYCTF, we’re in a sense agreeing to tackling the toughest of situations…
I don’t care though. It’s still hard!!!! We need more help!
FIrst year teaching is tough. But getting a prepared curriculum makes it too easy to do things the same way later on (parallels to the kids who get introduced wrong and never correct?) so I think you need to keep it there.
I’ve got the same problem, 5 years in. I have two preps that I’ve never taught before (Algebra and Geometry) and I feel like I’m failing all over again. Algebra is allright, because it’s a step above the 7th grade stuff I’m proficient at, and I’ve got a pretty good guess at where kids’ hangups are going to be. But I think I’ve got a lot more failures than successes with geometry this year.
My real problem is this: our school loops – which means I won’t see this curriculum again until two years from now. How am I supposed to get good at that?
New preps are tough. This is my second year and I have three sections of a new prep (that is also a new prep for the school). Luckily I’m with a great group and we do a lot of collaborative planning during our late start times. It would be really nice if we had a common period off to plan though.
Still, there are so many things that I’d do differently next year. Hopefully I get the chance!
The day before school started back in August, my principal emailed me to say that instead of teaching all Algebra I classes, I would have to also teach Algebra II. I didn’t think this would be such a big deal, but even with years of experience under my belt, there was still a learning curve. There always will be when you start a new subject or grade level. There are lots of great ideas and supporters out there though, just keep looking!