Five Questions to Ask Yourself Every Day
How to guarantee that every day is a good day in your classroom
My motto as a teacher is pretty simple: I want to make it better for them than it was for me. Meaning: School was pretty boring for me mostly, when I was a student, and there were a lot of things I just didn’t see the point of or that were entirely unenjoyable. Sometimes, I chose not to show up, but I’d still do well in the class because it didn’t really matter for the grade.
When I first became a teacher, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to make my classroom a place that held value for them and kept them interested. It took a few years to piece it together (“few” being a euphemism), but then it all clicked into place. It was as simple as reflecting on a handful of questions as I lesson-planned to ensure that each and every day was an A sort of day.
Here’s what I would ask myself:
- What will help others lean in to the topic? As teachers, we generally have a curriculum we are supposed to follow. What we do with that curriculum is where there’s potential for magic and spark. For example: at one high school I taught at, it was understood that we would have students read The Old Man and the Sea. I was not thrilled. Personally, I find the book to be rather dry AND I could…