Reflections on Term 1, 2006

Because, as I've learned in my (few but full) years in the classroom, good teaching comes from reflection.

The only problem is finding the time in which to reflect.

So, in a blast of stream-of-consciousness, Reflections on the Past Twelve Weeks:

1. Never, ever again will I have thirty students in an elective. Especially not when 26 are seniors. And certainly not when 19 of the 26 are young men. Trying to manage that class was absolutely exhausting. Of course, it had its benefits...I gained a newfound level of respect for grade-school teachers!

2. Order the Henry V texts way earlier in the term. The Shakespeare unit snuck up on me this year, and I ended up kind-of sort-of wasting a week waiting for the books to arrive. Shakespeare got short shrift this year, and that's irritating to me, since it's my favorite part of the term.

3. But on the silver-lining side, not having the texts forced some quick revision on my part, and I liked the way things came out -- the performance aspect took precedence over the textual analysis aspect, and I felt that the students' understanding of and ability to dissect the nuances of the play was much improved from years when I tried to do the heavy textual analysis first and performances second. They really got the idea that you don't have to understand every single little word in order to get what's going on and enjoy it.

4. Plus, watching clips of the Branagh Henry V is really fun when the students are calling out to see "their" scenes -- and even more fun when they're righteously indignant that lines are cut out of the film version!

5. Even if they did spend a lot of time saying "There's Christian Bale!" "There's Bilbo!" "There's Gilderoy Lockhart!" instead of paying attention to the words of the play. (Ian Holm plays Fluellen in Henry V and Bilbo Baggins in Lord of the Rings; Kenneth Branagh plays Henry and also Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter. They didn't, however, recognize Emma Thompson, who plays Princess Katherine in HV and Professor Sybil Trelawney in HP. Must have been the lack of glasses and fluffy shawls.)

6. Numbering the in-class writing assignments on the board is a good idea.

7. Encourage the Vocabulary Game more. Keep the daily class participation log handy.

8. Resolution for next term: grade all papers within the week. Procrastination makes it harder to do the longer it's put off.

9. Having three ASO performances in six weeks, plus a dance competition in the middle of it, was way more stressful than I thought it would be.

10. I will start planning next year's fantasy lit elective over Christmas break. Hold me to it.

11. Maybe hiring a cleaning service to come in once a month to do the heavier housework would not be a bad idea, or an advertisement to the world that I am an incompetent housekeeper, or a lazy spoiled person.