Day 1, Kinda Sorta

"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion) 09/08/2020 at 06:41 • Filed to: new job same old anxiety

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While I’ve technically been employed in my new position since mid-August, t oday is my first actual day of teaching. Ever. I’m excited, and nervous. I have 3 classes, all 90 minutes, all in person. Masks required. It should be... interesting. The class I’m most nervous about is AP CompSci in Java; I don’t have a background in coding, programming, let alone Java, and no teaching experience to speak of. I know I have at least one student who took Java in a different school already. I can’t imagine he won’t be bored, but... who knows? I’ve been crash-coursing myself in Java since I learned about the job, so hopefully I can stay ahead of the kids. 

Part of me cannot wait to get through this first day, I don’t know yet if I have way too much to cover in 90 minutes or not enough. I don’t know if the kids will ask a ton of questions that I don’t have answers for. I don’t know how it’s going to be, trying to teach 4 kids remotely who are literally on opposite ends of the globe this morning. At least I have Wednesday to debrief and regroup before Thursday’s classes.

Is it June yet? I hear I get the summer off. I think I’ll need it. 

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > functionoverfashion 09/08/2020 at 07:11

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You could always tell them about your vehicular adventures!

Best of luck tho!

TheRealBicycleBuck > functionoverfashion 09/08/2020 at 07:19

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My first time teaching CAD was a crash course for both me and the students. I feel your pain.

One truck to getting the valine of information correct is to divide up the source material evenly among the weeks you have to teach. Don’t forget to take time out for the normal vacation periods, testing, and some extra time in the spring for the post-Christmas break stupid phase.

Good luck!

TheRealBicycleBuck > TheRealBicycleBuck 09/08/2020 at 08:16

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Wow. I tapped that out on my phone and it looks like I was drunk when I did it. So, I was trying to say that a good starting point for determining the amount of material per week is to divide the book  equally among the number of weeks available, leaving out weeks for testing and vacation. In reality, things tend to get started slowly, then ramp up toward the end of the semester. Taking time on the fundamentals is important. Once they get the hang of it, you can ramp up the information flow and cover a lot more material.

functionoverfashion > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 09/08/2020 at 13:18

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I brought up something about learning to work on my own cars, and one of them asked, “are you the one with that old fire department truck?” haha yup, that’s me. “Wow I figured it was one of the older teachers.”