Teacher Tips: Course Requests & Teaching Assignments
Making course requests as a student is all fun and optimism. For teachers who are lucky enough to have input in the classes they will teach the next year, however, this request process can be much more fraught. Whether it’s because our identity is tied up in the courses we teach, our school politics make course selection feel like a dangerous minefield, or we’re teetering on the edge of burnout, course requests seem to mean more and have more lasting consequences for us than they do for students.
If you’re approaching course request season, and especially if you’re considering making a change from your current course assignment, we wanted to share the hard-earned lessons we learned during our years trying to change up our own teaching assignments.
Why change?
If you’re struggling to get out of your car in the mornings to head into your classroom, changing up what you teach can make a big difference. If you’ve been teaching the same course for a long time or having a rough go of it with your current course assignment for a few years, a new curriculum might be what you need to get your creative wheels spinning again. If you’ve had a rough year with your students, a new grade level might be a refreshing change (just be careful not to follow this year’s students!). If you’re looking to build different relationships with students, taking on a new assignment outside your department like yearbook, journalism, student leadership, or coaching can be a great way to try something new, learn new skills, and interact with students in a different way.
Things to think about before asking for a change in your teaching assignment.
If you’re thinking of taking on a new assignment, consider the time commitment involved. Teaching a new curriculum requires a lot of work, which you may have forgotten if you’ve been teaching the same course for a while. Extracurricular assignments often require significant hours before and after school, even when they only account for one period of your school day. You might be in a place where that’s fine, but if you’re headed toward burnout or struggling to balance work with your other responsibilities, be realistic about whether the added time commitment is going to help or hurt.
Consider what your new PLC is like. Even if you’ve only been in the department for a year, you have some idea of which PLCs work well together and which ones are dysfunctional. Consider how much drama and conflict you’ll be in for, how much support you’re likely to receive, and how open your new partners will be to trying new things. You may decide it’s still worth the change, but these dynamics are absolutely something to consider. (If you decide to make the switch, you might want to listen to our podcast episode “How to Be an Effective Contributor in Your PLC” or check out our blog post on navigating teacher politics.)
Something we’re all guilty of doing as we prepare to make our course requests.
Try to put your students’ needs first and remember that not all scheduling assignments are about you. The counselors and administrators building school schedules are trying to balance a host of competing factors, which may include a “bubble” class that is significantly larger or smaller than other grade levels. This means the number of needed teachers at a grade level can change dramatically year to year. Sometimes, an administrator is looking for a particular personality or skill set to place with certain students or in a certain PLC. It’s so easy to feel territorial about the classes we teach, and course assignments can certainly get political, but a good school master schedule is built around student, rather than teacher, needs. The more willing you can be to be placed where your personality and skills are most needed can make for a less stressful situation for everyone.
That being said, however, speak up for your needs. There are times in our lives when we just cannot take on something new. There are groups of students we just cannot follow to the next grade level. There may even be courses that you just do not feel prepared to teach. If there is something you really and truly need (and be honest with yourself here about need vs. want), speak up and fight for it. You cannot be an effective teacher if you are in a situation that is damaging to your mental and emotional health, and you are the only one you can rely on to advocate on your behalf.
Have you thought about approaching your teaching assignment from a different way?
If you have a fantastic working relationship with another teacher, consider prioritizing that partnership over the course itself. After a few years of working together, we started telling our administrators and department chair that we’d be happy to move wherever we were most needed as long as we could continue working together. We knew our collaborative partnership was something special, and we weren’t willing to give that up, even if it required extra work on our end.
Ultimately, remember you can connect with students and make a difference in their lives no matter what course you are teaching.
What is course selection like at your school? Are you considering making a change? Reach out and let us know at [email protected] or on Instagram @threeheads.works. If you need to talk out your decision with someone who understands the teaching world but isn’t at your school site, we’re here to support you!