First Day of New Schedule
I chose a short personal essay (the literature to writing unit many of my classes are doing) about the Challenger today, because I was pretty sure I could do it in 35 minutes.
I could, but just barely manage it. It's funny, because between student teaching, the Ohio School for the Deaf, and my current work, I have spent twenty years teaching classes that are 45 minutes long each. My inner pacing is geared for that, and it was really enervating trying to accomplish what I wanted to in a 30 minute format, because the five minute at the beginning/end of class was for transitioning to the next class period.
I spent a good amount of today crying, because the Challenger is an emotive topic for me. My high school science teacher, Jim Rawlins, was one of the three finalists for the Teacher in Space spot on the Challenger. (Ironically, my sons' gifted elementary teacher, Lee Schreiner, was another one of those three.) I was in Mr. Rawlins' class viewing the launch when disaster struck. Our science class had won a nation-wide contest to design an experiment to conduct in space, and we really wanted to know how it would turn out. We'd had computer interaction teach time with Christa (normal now, but very high-tech then.) So, we all rather fell apart at the time.
And each time I read this essay today in school, I choked up and cried. And each time, you could have heard a pin drop in my room. My students were very empathetic with me, for which I was glad. Many were stunned that any reading could do that to anyone, and that I would keep teaching something that made me cry? Inconceivable.
I haven't done myself any favors for tomorrow, either. My essay to be taught is Helen Keller's "Water" moment, which has special significance to me a a teacher for the Deaf.
It's going to take a while to get used to the new timing. And a lot of new planning. *sigh*
I could, but just barely manage it. It's funny, because between student teaching, the Ohio School for the Deaf, and my current work, I have spent twenty years teaching classes that are 45 minutes long each. My inner pacing is geared for that, and it was really enervating trying to accomplish what I wanted to in a 30 minute format, because the five minute at the beginning/end of class was for transitioning to the next class period.
I spent a good amount of today crying, because the Challenger is an emotive topic for me. My high school science teacher, Jim Rawlins, was one of the three finalists for the Teacher in Space spot on the Challenger. (Ironically, my sons' gifted elementary teacher, Lee Schreiner, was another one of those three.) I was in Mr. Rawlins' class viewing the launch when disaster struck. Our science class had won a nation-wide contest to design an experiment to conduct in space, and we really wanted to know how it would turn out. We'd had computer interaction teach time with Christa (normal now, but very high-tech then.) So, we all rather fell apart at the time.
And each time I read this essay today in school, I choked up and cried. And each time, you could have heard a pin drop in my room. My students were very empathetic with me, for which I was glad. Many were stunned that any reading could do that to anyone, and that I would keep teaching something that made me cry? Inconceivable.
I haven't done myself any favors for tomorrow, either. My essay to be taught is Helen Keller's "Water" moment, which has special significance to me a a teacher for the Deaf.
It's going to take a while to get used to the new timing. And a lot of new planning. *sigh*