Journal 2 - February 2, 2007


This week we didn't have a chance to go out to Jordan High. We are in the midst of mapping out our curriculum. We found out that we are NOT going to have two English classes like we initially hoped; instead, we'll be teaching advanced acting first period and tenth grade English second period. It's somewhat disappointing because we were really looking forward to teaching a more mature age group and discussing "The Coldest Winter Ever" with the juniors. Luckily, I think that our drama lessons will be successful, without incorporating and leaning on their reading material. On the same token, Iliana and I would still like to incorporate some broader historical theme within our lessons with the advanced acting class. It has been a little frustrating that the plans for our classroom assignment have changed so many times, but I assume it's a good experience to learn how to be flexible – since I'm sure this isn't the last time we'll have to roll with a few punches!
In planning our curriculum, it's difficult for me to reconcile two different ideas/priorities as we approach our residency. On one hand, I want to be able to develop my own lessons to prepare for acting as a guest artist/teacher, and be able to bring something meaningful into a classroom during just one visit. One the other hand, I imagine that I will be a full-time classroom teacher someday, and I can already anticipate wanting to thread each class into the next class, so every day feels relevant and the students can follow themes and criteria more easily. I feel like since we have to break-up our activities into lesson plans based on the standards, it seems redundant to keep mentioning our themes and skills we're working on in each plan (thus making me feel like we should working on a different mini-project every week). However, the reality is that we'll probably spend a significant amount of time reinforcing the same terms and skills over and over, to make sure the students are keeping up with everything we're bringing into the class. Anyway, I'm sure it's just an issue we'll confront in the classroom, and we'll just have to readjust and fine-tune our lessons as we move along in the quarter.