Back in the Saddle

As I mentioned in my last entry, Tuesday night and Wednesday weren't exactly pleasant. By the grace of God, it proved to be a 24-hour illness, and I was back in school today. But it was rough. In lieu of sickness, I felt more or less dead for most of the day.

Today I continued the with the mini-unit on verbs with both sections of English I. On the menu for today: verb tenses. Although would please me more than spending a couple of weeks discussing each sub-tense (perfect, progressive, perfect-progessive), for the sake of time and to keep student confusion to a minimum, I decided to stick with the basics -- past, present, and future. In my first period class, I got a little excited and started discussing tenses at 100 mph. I didn't realize this at first, but I did stop after a few minutes to gauge if they were with me or not, and a very honest student let me know that I was going entirely too fast. I benefit greatly from students who are honest enough to look at me in bewilderment because it usually tells me that I am not doing something right.

So, I slowed down. We reviewed what they knew already. Slowly.

After class, Mrs. Manning and I talked about a statement that I had made one of the first times she and I talked: I was sharing my experience being homeschooled and that upon entering a traditional school, I was amazed by how little was accomplished. On my own, I typically completed far more between the hours of 9 and noon than I ever completed from 8 to 3 in school. And then I would have the rest of the day for reading, playing outside, or spending time with friends (contrary to popular belief, homeschooling does not rob children of social skills; actually, the biggest hit ever taken by my social life was when I went to school). So, Mrs. Manning and I were talking about all the stuff that had to be done in class: bell ringers, attendance, interactive learning activities, test-prep, and so forth. It seems to be how things work. There is never enough time to do all that I want to do. I am constantly aware of the bell looming minutes away.

Considering the difficulties of covering all content that a student ought to know, it seems that the goal should be inspiring and encouraging self-education. I think that is the reason for the disconnect I felt between in-home education and in-school education: we had curriculum and lessons at home, but much of the day was self-directed and spent reading books that interested me.

So. Here's the question I'll be grappling with: how can a teacher foster self-education in the modern secondary school?