PULL IN THE... EMERGENCY GENERATOR! "WE'VE LOST POWER!"

I feel like “The Little Engine that Could!” Seriously on a daily basis. I generate. I do there is no denying it. I have a backup generator if my original generator fails. A plan in my head before I get to school and then the actual plan that just “comes out” as the bell rings based on student needs and behavior and attitudes.  First and foremost I use the revised Minnesota Science Standards to plan which units I will (or should) cover. This is my second year with the revised standards and I already know I am going to have to leave a few things out. Second I correlate the standards with student textbook chapters to see what fits and what is missing, boring, or left out.

To generate student notes I spend time reading and re-reading the student textbooks to draw out the “best or most valid” information that I feel the students need to know to understand the units and standards. Then the real work begins as I get the creative juices flowing on how to go about teaching an ACTUAL lesson to re-teach the information to the students.  I don’t lecture nearly as often as I used to… and never two days in a row. Never the whole hour. Maybe 25-30 minutes. It drags I know… Sometimes I use the SMART BOARD but really I feel like that is just something else that I don’t really have time for yet. I still use the OVERHEAD for notes believe it or not. I like the lights off (half off really.) I like sitting down for once… it calms my students—otherwise I never sit or stop. I like COLOR-CODING for them and actually SPENDING TIME writing the notes WORD-for-WORD. I know its old-fashioned but again it slows me down. I am facing the students. I can see their eyes. PowerPoints work sometimes but I tend to speed through them like a run-away train!

So, it’s me presenting info and then me generating some “fun,” creative way for the students to review or use the information from the previous day. A poster, a skit, a project, a worksheet. A lab if at all feasible, something for them to cut out, or draw, or fill in. Manipulation of material and facts.  Honestly… its exhausting. I feel like I am connecting the information but really my students are NOT making true connections and links between units or lessons. I need to re-vamp what I am doing and I know that. More time for questions… more discussion and learning from one another...less answers provided to the students. I wonder...will this ever be ANY easier? I am realizing that I thought it would… but I was wrong.

I think I can, I think I can... Can I? Should I? Am I the only one pulling? 10 yrs uphill...