I'm not exactly sure where to start this or where it'll end up as I think upon this year. It probably doesn't help that they're using my room right now for graduation practice and so I have a couple dozen antzy seniors in here. This year has been interesting to say the least. I'm going to do my best not to rant and complain (I've done that enough I feel) here. So I'll do my best to stay on point with lessons learned here.
I'll start with my AP class, just in case I'm fortunate to teach AP World again. I was able to implement so new stuff this year, the questions of the day were more frequent and good bell ringers. I did more with analyzing art and I thought that went well. I wish I could have been there to get into more contemporary pieces, especially Guernica by Picasso. We got to the writing a lot earlier than I had the prior year, and I think/hope that helped. I know there was certainly a good sized gap during the winter, but I think hitting the writing early helped as I saw some improvements in just the 3-4 months I was there to oversee things. I also think the blog style homework did well. I think I need to be a bit more specific for its purpose in the writing process, but it was a good way to get the students introduced to some good outside readings, cover some of the crash course material, etc. That said, I know I still missed covering some things that I really had hoped to, like the Easter Island statues and some of the Polynesian migration. I think I was still getting a feel for pacing and making sure that I cover a lot while trying not spend too much time to one place that in all honesty might have been covered in 1-2 questions tops. I'm looking at you Greece and Rome. I'm interested to see how the course changes go and shape AP World too.
As for the second semester, being able to look back now, it was definitely a learning experience. I was definitely unhappy/frustrated during good chunks of the year. Disappointed that the school I came too wasn't close to what my expectations of it were. Disappointed at the negativity and seeming apathy I came across in fellow teachers and administrators. I know that this isn't anything new, but it made me appreciate the work that my previous school did to not only have competent teachers, but I think they made it a point for the group to be one that worked together, wasn't afraid to challenge one another, but also for the most part genuinely liked one another. We could all (or mostly) could hang out after work, eat lunch together, and it made coming in a lot easier day in day out. I know that is something that as I look at potential other schools that it is a question I need to be upfront about. I want to work with those that I not only like, but that will push be to be better. I don't think I have that here, and it's unfortunate since there is certainly potential.
As for in the classroom, I underestimated the changes to some extent and took the easy way too often. Moving to standard level classes, I had the mindset that I wouldn't "dumb" down the course or material because it wasn't honors. I'm proud that I stuck with that, and most followed through and did well. In all honesty, I think my class worked a lot harder and did more than the honors class did. Hopefully they got more out of it too, their final exam scores are at a spot where I am pleased. We will see what almighty EVAAS says about their growth, I hope it was similar to what I accomplished last year. But it was challenging, I had some work that some students could do in 15 minutes while others struggled to get it done in 50. I moved the class to mostly online since all the students had Macbooks, and that was good but I definitely could do better. More forms, kahoots, or socrative formative assessments or reviews. I'm not sure I stopped very often along the way to check what all they were learning, or more importantly seeing if they put it into the larger historical puzzle. I also just gave up a couple things because I didn't push them or got lazy. I was going to do current event stuff, more tie-ins to make it relevant, but after the first week, it felt forced, the students didn't really care, and rather than fixing it, I just trashed it. I think if I continue on block, it's something I need to do more with. Even if it is smaller topic (ie. a Last Week Tonight kind of thing) I think I should do this going forward. Make students more aware, etc.
That's all I got for now, I'm sure throughout the summer I'll put some of my ideas down to paper, especially once I figure out what (and maybe where) I'm teaching.
