Mary Redden

Domain 1 Reflection  

Planning and Preparation

Year 3

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​This year I added two new subjects to my schedule.  In addition to teaching 2 sections of ICT Living Environment,  I co-taught one period of ICT Marine Science and one section of ICT Regents Chemistry.   I very much enjoyed teaching all these subjects with my co-teachers, however the scheduling involved with trying to meet and plan with each co-teacher, meet with students at request, grade for each class, keep up with procedural work, teach my classes, and make sure to include extra studying time for myself turned out to be much more difficult than I had originally thought. 

 

Very quickly into the year, I realized I had to become very regimented with my personal daily schedule, making sure to schedule co-teaching planning time first in the week by blocking off a few periods per co-teacher.  Then I would block out my class teaching times, and then students would be free to sign up to see me depending on what periods were open or they would choose to meet with me after school. This was very different than last year, as I taught three sections of the same class with one co-teacher who I had worked with before and my ICT students had support at the same time as I had off.  The students would come down if necessary whenever they wanted.  I don't have to liberty to allow that this year. 

 

I have to say although I didn't think it would, it has actually turned out for the better.   It took a few times of me having to tell students no to their last minute scrambling requests to meet with me the period before the test because I was planned to do something else, but they surprisingly quickly recovered and began penciling themselves into my book for the upcoming week.  I've been quite proud of them for this.  And I have to say, I've been proud of myself for sticking to my schedule and saying no to them when necessary (which has always been an issue for me).  It's turning out to be what's best for all of us as I have happy co-teachers to give my time to, and the students have learned the very difficult life lesson of planning ahead. 

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