All Grown Up

I have no kids of my own...so I have no idea if the following analogy is at all correct, but I am going to make it anyways.

I have taught Geometry since I first started teaching.  This year is my 6th year teaching it...I can't believe that I've taught Geometry for longer than I attended high school myself!  Every year, I have added to or taken away from the curriculum.  I have tried new things.  Coming into this year, I was finally ready to make some big jumps because 1) I am now so comfortable with the material I can actually try significant new things and 2) with the move to common core, there is more flexibility with the pacing of the course and more reason to make changes.  I have never had fewer than three periods of Geometry out of the five periods I teach, and two years I even taught four Geometry classes and one Honors Geometry class.  The point I am trying to make is...Geometry has become "my baby."

This is why this year is going to be so strange.  Due to life being unpredictable, I have found myself with a new baby...AP Stats.  I loved taking this course as a student, and have been hoping to teach it, but suddenly I am teaching not just the one section I expected to teach, but three!  For the first time in 6 years, my Geometry classes are the minority.  Suddenly, my attention has shifted to AP Stats which, like a newborn, requires so much of my attention.

Part of me is sad to loosen the reins on Geometry and all the plans I had for it (I am still going to try new things, just...not as many...), but I feel like it's the older child...getting a little more independent and requiring a little less of my attention.  Because I have this new baby, I just have to be okay with not being as involved with all the big changes I wanted to happen in Geometry.

Meanwhile, I am buckling down for sleepless nights and building up a curriculum that's new to me.  But I do LOVE this new baby.  AP Stats was the first math class I remember really loving.  I am excited to see what comes out of this year.  And even though this was unexpected, I really think this experience will make me a better teacher, especially because I have a great mentor.  I am looking forward to watching this new baby grow in the way I've watched my Geometry curriculum and teaching practice grow.

I am also looking forward to still being able to try new things here and there with Geometry, even though I know I can't give it the same attention I had hoped to.

Funny how we can become attached to the subjects/curriculum we teach.  But at the end of the day, change can be great.