A Real Person!

After the half day we had today our departments met for a professional development session on curriculum mapping.

that's beside the point.

After the day was over my department head (new for this year, not the guy from last year who still didn't know my name in may) called me over to talk. Rosie asked, "Tim, you're a software guy right? what is out there that will help students ..."

that's what started the conversation, it eventually morphed into a discussion about how to teach history outside of simply lecturing. Lecturing is boring for the teacher, and even more boring for the students. teachers try to spice it up with jokes, video clips, and things like that but as Rosie sort of pointed out in the discussion, "it gets to the point where you're entertaining more than you're teaching."

Rosie and I started to have a legitimate conversation about how to teach history what works, what doesn't, how to avoid simply giving busy work, how to integrate activities that actually have substance instead of the activities that miss the point and just slow you down pace wise.

We had a real, full out, colleague-to-colleague conversation where at points she was looking to me for advice and I looked to her. I was like, (in my head) "seriously, you're asking me about instructional strategies, I've been teaching for a total of a year and two weeks and you're the department head!" That may come off as if I was judging her for asking me (I wasn't), I was more just in awe of the fact that she respected me enough, even as a young teacher, to seek out to have this discussion.

I fully and completely felt (1) like a real teacher (2) like a real member of the department, and (3) like a true member o the school community I have been working in for the past year.

GREAT DAY!