High School Reflection

Thinking back to high school there were a few classes that stuck out to me. I can't remember the actual course name but I can remember the subjects. 1. Math 2. Social Studies 3. Reading


Why did these specific classes stick out to me? 
1. Math- I love math! I enjoyed it so much I would have the homework completed before leaving the classroom. Other students flocked to my table for support. Math always made sense to me. There was always a right and wrong answer. Even though the teacher's were "nice" the teachers weren't the reason these classes stuck out to me. I would have been fine in these courses even if they were an independent study.
2. Social Studies- Easy A. That's all I can really say, the coach's were funny and football games were on Fridays so that's all I really remember. Everything was reading the chapter and answering the questions in the back of the book. As a student I loved it because I easily got done in 5-10 minutes and had the rest of the class to do whatever I wanted. I can't even say as an adult that I wished I paid attention more in these classes because there was nothing to pay attention to. 
2. Reading- reading, yeah reading. Not my favorite subject in middle school or high school by far (even though I have learned to love it). A bad experience with a teacher in middle school turned me off of reading. I wasn't allowed to have my own voice or opinions in essays or assignments and would often time have a grade lowered if my point of view did not align with the teachers. On top of this there isn't an exact answer in reading. Besides with that one teacher, as long as you can prove your point it could possibly be right. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started to appreciate reading a little more. 

I always loved the books we were assigned (once I actually got through them), but my teacher during my senior year did a little more. It wasn't all of the time, 3/4 of the year was done quickly and she mainly used the "assign and tell strategy which more often than not,  squelches active involvement " (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2017, P. 10). The whole year led up to this moment, the moment when we began Dante's Inferno. This is where she shined. Pearson and Hoffman's (2011) principles of practice definitely came into play here. From day one of these lessons you can tell that she came in with a plan, ready to be flexible if a student didn't understand and ready to reach us students in any way that she could. We had hands on projects, presentations, and student led discussions. Everything we did seemed to be student led. If something didn't quite click she reflected over it and presented it to us in a new way the next day. You could tell this was what she looked forward too, this was her reward for the year. 

As a student, I was just ready to get out of school. I did the work to get the A in Social Studies and the beginning of the year in Reading. But at the end of the year in Reading, time went by quickly, I was engaged, I still remember the pride I took in doing my project (so much that I even restarted the entire thing because it didn't live up to my expectations of what I thought it should be). As a teacher, I look back and think of all the other content I missed with these teachers. If this reading teacher would have prepared and brought those same principles and strategies in at the beginning of the year how much more I would have learned, what more my eyes would have been opened up to and how much "better" of a student I would have been. If the coach's would have spent a little more time planning for their lessons instead of thinking about Friday's game the background knowledge I would have right now. 

More often than not we don't take the time to reflect on our lives. I loved this post for today because it reminds me of what I need to do and be for my students. Am I passionate about that one part of the year and just buying time the rest of it or am I taking the time to prepare, be knowledgeable, flexible and strategic in what I do? For the good of my students I hope it's the latter, as I sit down to plan this year I will make this a priority.