Since I started my teaching career without an education in teaching, I was prone to all the beginner mistakes that one can imagine. The mistakes were many and included such follies as not setting rules and procedures, believing hour long lectures is “just how teaching’s done”, and even showing a youtube video on Hindu practices without actually viewing the whole video first - yikes! (The last mistake had little to do with not having an education degree and more to do with lacking some good ol’ common sense).  

One of my mistakes included a mistake in perspective or belief. I had the dubious perspective that an education degree was a waste of time when all one really had to do was major in their respective field and then after obtaining all the knowledge needed, you would just saunter into the classroom and of course, teach. Well, it took me about twenty minutes in the classroom before I realized that there is serious method to the madness and since I totally lacked the method, well, total madness was the learning objective we most often accomplished.

Years of experience gleaned from “real” teachers and an annual recurring enrollment in the school of hard knocks has shaped things up quite well for me and my students. While I am grateful for this, I must say that the Teach-Now program is far exceeding my expectations and is serving as the polished finish on this rusty teacher.

There have been multiple activities and insights that have propelled my teaching ability forward exponentially. This lesson, however, has topped them all. Until this lesson, I did not really grasp the importance of standards to shape everything else that goes on in the classroom. What a revelation it is to be able to unpack these standards and watch closely as the big idea emerges from the nouns, the skills to be taught and honed arrive from the verb(s), assessments become more clear and focused, and relevant and pinpoint accurate activities can be developed.  

I look forward to the unpacking of each standard that I select for a unit and I know that through this unpacking process the lessons will be much richer and relevant, teaching more focused, learning more enjoyable, practical, and measurable, and assessment strategies more broad.

I have created my own standard unpacking grid: