So....my last post was August and talked all about next week's post and all I'd have to say about preparing for a new school, grade level and course. So much for that I guess. And even though it isn't really the end of the first semester yet, it seems like this may be one of the few times I can sit down and write. First and foremost, I love my new position. Not a minute has gone by where I regret changing districts and schools. And that is not meant to be a knock on where I was, I liked my colleagues, admin, students, etc. But from the minute I decided to go back to school to get my teaching certifications, I think I always envisioned myself at the high school level. I really love teaching AP too. I really like my honors classes too, but AP is a great challenge and I feel that I can really teach a lot more of the nuance and fun parts for history rather than just the boring names and dates. But this fall has been a whirlwind, trying my best to get ahead of AP students in really knowing the content before I teach it. Now the big challenges are trying to cover the big idea things without hopefully skipping over other minor things that might be on the test, providing them with enough information to prepare them without completely overwhelming them with so much information, and trying to make class more than just notes and reading, and more notes and reading. I've been lucky to find some really good and organized teachers that teach APWH online and through twitter to steal some of their ideas, or at the very least, validate what I've been doing. I even created a website for my AP students to keep all of the things in one place for them, notes, assignments etc. The new site has probably been one of the big things that have drawn me away from my blog here, but it's been really good for the students, their parents, and anyone else trying to keep up with the class. I'm also hoping that in the spring as we get into more modern history, I can find more ways to make the content memorable and fun and engaging for the students too.
I know one big thing I want/need to do more of are class discussions/simulations. We had a really good debate on Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and we have a State Building simulation coming up that I'm very excited about doing. The students will have to be various foreign leaders from all over the world in the pre-Industrialization time period. Should be fun. I think another one I'll do is have the students be various African nations and they will have to convince me as the imperial power to come and make a deal with their country to establish a colony peacefully. Should lead to good discussions and hopefully the students will more importantly learn about the Early Modern leaders and the Scramble for Africa that way rather than just reading about it. I'm sure I have lots of things to reflect and say, but trying to come up with them all now seems impossible. My big resolution after trying to get back in shape is to blog more regularly (I feel I've made that one before too). Hopefully I can do better with both. Until next time (whenever that may be, hopefully next week or two once school resumes), thanks for reading
