u/Difficult-Walk4275

I’m starting at a new school this year and I’m finding out they are pretty, uh, strict with using the curriculum. I have a problem with this.

Forget the need for some consistency across teachers and grade levels, forget that this company is owned by a venture capitalist firm that fuels the military industrial complex (but what doesn’t, right?). What is REALLY getting to me is that it feels like I’m not allowed to adjust, slow down, or reflect the lives of my students in how I’m delivering content.

I hate that I even phrased it like that, but delivering content literally is what this type of teaching feels like.

Also, we are in a literacy crisis. How am I supposed to engage students if I’m expected to (literally) just annotate the book and explain directions…

This ain’t what I went to school for. Please share some advice as to how I can break this curriculum and use it to spark creativity and learning. Or if you’ve been in a similar situation what you did to make it manageable.

I did it y’all. After being stuck teaching English for the past 3 years, I am finally putting my college major to work and am teaching world history for 9th graders this year. I am STOKED.

I am doing an interactive notebook this year, and I have it in my head to do a “Unit 0” where I teach students how to use the notebook, things about the class/rules/procedures, and review important info they need to do well in a history class.

For seasoned history teachers, do you have a review unit where you go back over important info? (i.e. how to read a map/table/graph, five themes of geography, primary/secondary sources, how to take notes, etc.?) These are high schoolers, but the last time I taught world history I noticed that my students struggled with the fundamentals. Granted, I was student teaching then, but I want my students to be able to engage in the content and be sure of it FIRST before we start the first unit.

Or what would you recommend I really focus on to set up the class for success? And if anyone had a folder or drive they would share, I’d be very thankful for resources!