My classes started again a week ago. That means I’m back to the student and teacher position. That’s always interesting because sometimes it’s hard to shift gears. In the classroom you are the expert on all things where as in my class I not only have to defer to the teacher but to the other students. I just find it an interesting juxtaposition.
For the last year, in my classes, I’ve found it difficult to completely understand the problems that the folks who were actually teaching had. I was in the classroom but only for a couple of hours a day. I found it difficult to relate to being there full time. Now I’m in a class full time and I’m pretty much on my own. In the public schools, where all my other classmates teach at, there are generally more then one teacher teaching their subjects. So if they teach math, there are 3 or 4 math teachers teaching the same thing. In my private school, which is tiny, I’m the only chemistry teacher. I have no one to compare notes with or to collaborate with or anything. There are other science teachers that I can talk to but that’s about it.
For our class we have to write a unit plan and deliver at least two of the lessons from that plan while we are being observed. In class last week I was expressing concern because as a new teacher and the only chemistry teacher, I’m not sure of the pacing. The observation visits will be at the end of November and I have to plan the unit and lessons now. Having never taught anything before I’m really guessing at the pacing of the curriculum. I do have a curriculum map from the last chemistry teacher so I’m using that as a guide line. Anyway, one of the other ladies in my class was having a hissy fit over this very thing and saying she didn’t know how she would be able to do it. She’s only student teaching and has a mentor teacher who’s class she’s taken over. This mentor has been teaching this class for about 10 years, I’m pretty sure the mentor has an idea of what will be covered when. I was getting so annoyed with her in class over this whole thing. Funny, seems I have more patience with my students then I do with my adult classmates 
Anyway, starting to think about this unit plan I have to develop got me looking at the way I’m going about my teaching. In the beginning I was just trying to stay one step ahead of the students. I would plan for the next day the night before. By having to think about a unit that’s at the end of the semester I’ve had to look ahead. One of the rules in teaching is to plan with the end in mind. I haven’t been doing that but I think I’m about to start. After next week we have two weeks off for fall break. I think I’m going to use that time to rough out unit/lesson plans for the rest of the semester. I’m going to develop each unit starting with what I want the students to get out of it, then work backwards from there. Now that I’m not so frenzied just teaching I can actually begin to plan what I’m going to do 