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Are you good at time management?
In some ways that's more important than how good your Latin is.
There have been some discussions on the Latinteach list (join it) lately about feeling totally overwhelmed your first year of teaching, of feeling like you are incompetent, that you should quit, etc.
Luckily lots of people have admitted to having horrific 1st years. JN, now a prof, even went so far as to describe calling her mom and totally falling apart. And many people have offered wonderful advice. I even have an article called Twice a First Year Teacher that compares my true first year with my first year back, and why one was better than the other. http://www.txclassics.org/ginny_articles5.htm
But really, thinking about how the last couple of weeks have been, I realize that the real issue your first year is time management as much as classroom management. Can you realistically map out in your mind how to prep for your classes in the time alotted? Oh, and only give yourself an hour, two at most, for working at home.
If you are doing more than that at home each night, then you need to cut it out. You have to live a life, preferrably independent of teaching, in order to keep sane. You can't do it viginti quattuor/septem/tricenti sexaginta quinque.
Ok ok ok, what the heck am I doing then, eh? Yeah, well, some of us are sick and eat and breath Latin stuff. But I'm not grading right now. Yeah, I have some to grade and I hope to get to it this weekend but I might not. I have a family.
So, what do you do that first year when you have quizzes to write and papers to grade? You know, before you have a drawer full of materials?
Simple: you ask a veteran teacher if you can come photocopy their drawer full. No kidding. Get all of their files. I did my second time around. Do I use all of it? No. I modify quite a bit of it. But if I don't have time to, then I just use what I have or wing it.
For instance, I really want to totally redesign my exploratory class. Actually, it's ok as it is, but it's not what I ideally want. I did revise slightly my expressions list (I included libenter for "you're welcome") but I haven't gotten around to including it in other materials that go with this section. I'll get it next 9 weeks. Right now I'm just trying to cope with the beginning of the year stuff and adjustments. I don't currently have time so I will use with what I have.
Here's another rule of thumb: the longer it takes to design a neat lesson, the bigger it will flop. Seriously. I swear this is true. Simple is best in many ways.
And routines are good. Routines help manage time. My routines include warm-ups, which can act sort of like a mini-quiz, or just to focus students on what you are doing that day. I may have to start making my shorter because I've lost 5 minutes per class this year because of our 8 period day.
But I know that students are on task with a warm-up while I check roll on the computer. And in my room since we ring the bell with 5 minutes left to go, I'm never still trying to finish explaining something as they are trying to get to their next class. If we get things put away and still have a few minutes, there is time for questions, review, or drilling flashcards.
If you are someone who digresses, admit it to yourself and stop doing it. Yeah, Latin is full of neat things that you can digress on, but save it for those last couple of extra minutes. Don't steal your own instructional time from yourself.
You should try to plan ahead. I'm not the best at this. You can't necessarily stick to a strict syllabus, but you also canNOT ignore when students don't get something. I use warm-ups for checking student learning and for reteaching. Mini-reviews.
The main thing is to be able to at least look a week or two out (ok, you should probably do more, but I find I'm always adjusting things according to the reality of what happened in class). If you are teaching day to day, you will be stressed day to day. You will be constantly chasing your tail.
Well...I suppose that's all I want to ramble on about regarding time management. I have some grading to do, but I also have laundry, and I'm a mom. It's Friday and the grading can at least wait until tomorrow.
In some ways that's more important than how good your Latin is.
There have been some discussions on the Latinteach list (join it) lately about feeling totally overwhelmed your first year of teaching, of feeling like you are incompetent, that you should quit, etc.
Luckily lots of people have admitted to having horrific 1st years. JN, now a prof, even went so far as to describe calling her mom and totally falling apart. And many people have offered wonderful advice. I even have an article called Twice a First Year Teacher that compares my true first year with my first year back, and why one was better than the other. http://www.txclassics.org/ginny_articles5.htm
But really, thinking about how the last couple of weeks have been, I realize that the real issue your first year is time management as much as classroom management. Can you realistically map out in your mind how to prep for your classes in the time alotted? Oh, and only give yourself an hour, two at most, for working at home.
If you are doing more than that at home each night, then you need to cut it out. You have to live a life, preferrably independent of teaching, in order to keep sane. You can't do it viginti quattuor/septem/tricenti sexaginta quinque.
Ok ok ok, what the heck am I doing then, eh? Yeah, well, some of us are sick and eat and breath Latin stuff. But I'm not grading right now. Yeah, I have some to grade and I hope to get to it this weekend but I might not. I have a family.
So, what do you do that first year when you have quizzes to write and papers to grade? You know, before you have a drawer full of materials?
Simple: you ask a veteran teacher if you can come photocopy their drawer full. No kidding. Get all of their files. I did my second time around. Do I use all of it? No. I modify quite a bit of it. But if I don't have time to, then I just use what I have or wing it.
For instance, I really want to totally redesign my exploratory class. Actually, it's ok as it is, but it's not what I ideally want. I did revise slightly my expressions list (I included libenter for "you're welcome") but I haven't gotten around to including it in other materials that go with this section. I'll get it next 9 weeks. Right now I'm just trying to cope with the beginning of the year stuff and adjustments. I don't currently have time so I will use with what I have.
Here's another rule of thumb: the longer it takes to design a neat lesson, the bigger it will flop. Seriously. I swear this is true. Simple is best in many ways.
And routines are good. Routines help manage time. My routines include warm-ups, which can act sort of like a mini-quiz, or just to focus students on what you are doing that day. I may have to start making my shorter because I've lost 5 minutes per class this year because of our 8 period day.
But I know that students are on task with a warm-up while I check roll on the computer. And in my room since we ring the bell with 5 minutes left to go, I'm never still trying to finish explaining something as they are trying to get to their next class. If we get things put away and still have a few minutes, there is time for questions, review, or drilling flashcards.
If you are someone who digresses, admit it to yourself and stop doing it. Yeah, Latin is full of neat things that you can digress on, but save it for those last couple of extra minutes. Don't steal your own instructional time from yourself.
You should try to plan ahead. I'm not the best at this. You can't necessarily stick to a strict syllabus, but you also canNOT ignore when students don't get something. I use warm-ups for checking student learning and for reteaching. Mini-reviews.
The main thing is to be able to at least look a week or two out (ok, you should probably do more, but I find I'm always adjusting things according to the reality of what happened in class). If you are teaching day to day, you will be stressed day to day. You will be constantly chasing your tail.
Well...I suppose that's all I want to ramble on about regarding time management. I have some grading to do, but I also have laundry, and I'm a mom. It's Friday and the grading can at least wait until tomorrow.
