Thursday, March 14, 2013

Thinking too far ahead

Having a real problem over the past month or so keeping my head in this year.  This is a pretty common failing at this point of the year, especially when doing year long classes.  You are at the 3/4 mark and probably through 7/8 of the curriculum because of leaving time to review before EOCs.  So I guess it is natural to do so, and I definitely have started to think a lot about next year.

Part of it is that I teach at an amazing school with ridiculously supportive administration.  We were shortly after Christmas break to list a few wishes for next year, and everyone was encouraged to come up with a "dream" course or as the internet might have it now, a stretch goal.

I listed two, figuring there was no way that they would really get considered.

I was wrong though and so next year I will likely be teaching a high school level Intro to Organic and Biochemistry course.  First off, I think this fits in well with our school, we have a lot of kids who have the desire to go into medicine, biology and chemical engineering.  That being the case, since Organic is a classic weedout course, this will only help our students.

Plus, it will be a heck of a lot of fun to teach, I'm looking forward to a lot of labs and some cool discussions about molecules that affect their daily lives.  But then I started looking around for some others teaching such a class and there aren't a ton.  I saw Adrian Dingle's page for his Organic class and it was pretty intimidating (in a good way, as most of his stuff is) and it really hit me how much work I have to do to pull this off.

Oh, and I'm teaching AP Chemistry next year after a year without it and brand new standards next year....

I honestly just want to start prepping videos and planning for next year right now, but I only have 12 or so more class sessions with my APES class before their AP test, about the same for Biology before their EOC....

Good thing I don't have hair to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, it is a good anxiousness, the feeling of wanting to do your best, to be the best, for some of the best kids ever.  But it is still daunting.

1 comment:

  1. Funny how fun in Chemistry = more work! It sounds like the dream to reality really started with having students interested in pursuing careers requiring science and teaching in a STEM academy with a really supportive administration. That excited/nervous feeling I think is a good sign. I get that when I get to teach something I am passionately interested in and want desperately to get it all right. And desperately want my students to contract even a little bit of that excitement and passion, OK at least one student to catch it. :)
    Have fun with it, they always say love what you do...

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