So for the past week, and for the next week, I'm substituting in another online English class for BYUI. Same class I'm teaching now. You'd think that's easy, but it's not.
Here's why.
The class is designed in a way to make teaching the Argumentative Synthesis Essay a flexible teaching moment. They provide loose guidelines, but leave it up to individual teachers to custom-tailor the essay, done in three parts. And I know from personal experience in talking with other English teachers that not many of us teach the course in the same way.
So going into this, grading outlines and such for Part Two, I had no frame of reference for how their permanent teacher, due back in a week, is teaching the essay.
Now me, if someone came into my class as a substitute and read my announcements, they'd know right away how I teach the course. Not so with this teacher. So I had to dig deeper into things like her comments on their topics and on the Part One papers. So I think I have a grasp on what her expectations are, but I had to leave them an announcement today cautioning them that since I'm not the same teacher who started their section, my understanding may not match their teacher's expectations. So I laid out in the announcement where I intended to go. So that way, when their regular teacher comes back they can at least see the method to my madness. I hope that works, because it's what I'm sticking with.
This leads me to thinking about the error precursors we get hammered on at work. We can think we have a flawless plan, but as errors start to compound, they can compound in a way that makes incidents more likely. I'm hoping I've got my bases covered. Not for me, but for the students, because they don't deserve to have to do things over and over and over again to please different instructors.
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