Me as an Educator

I just wanted to get down this thought while it occurred to me. Yesterday, I taught a lesson on the six traits of writing that was WAY over my eighth graders' heads. When I talked with my supervisor about it, it seems the biggest problem was that I just tried to do too much in too little time. I thought too big.

And today, I am constructing a 3-week unit plan for my Teaching of Writing class. I'm pretty overwhelmed with it, so I e-mailed my professor, explaining how I wanted to cover writers' circles, reading of memoirs, accessing our own childhood memories...all kinds of good stuff. She said I'm trying to do too much. Think smaller.

This is something I'm noticing as I try to think of myself as a teacher. I get the big ideas, which my supervisor says is the hardest part. I know what I want my students to know...but when I try to deliver it to them, I expect too much, I cram too much, I don't think of the little details enough. I need to work on much more detail-oriented thinking next semester. And now that I've written it here, I will be reminded of this when I start to over-plan again.