Today I wanted to write about interruptions. In all our classes everyone told us teachers have to constantly be ready for interruptions and changes in the plans. I didn't really realize how true this was until this week. It seems like everyday this week there has been something--a guest speaker, band presentation, MAP test etc that has gotten in the way of our normal schedule. I had a science lesson planned for Monday that I was finally able to do today, because we kept having to push back the science lesson to accommodate special circumstances. Today, when I finally got a chance to do the lesson, it ended up being especially short and wild, because as I was beginning to teach the installation team came to do some wiring for our Prometheum board. While the board is still not up, and it doesn't even look like any real progress was made, we had drilling and building going on throughout the entire lesson. Finally, I cut the lesson short and Diane and I decided since it was the end of the day and there were so many distractions in the room we couldn't control, we would give in and have an extra 15 minutes of recess until it was time to go home.
I find myself frustrated by these interruptions to the flow, but I know I will have to learn to deal with them, because they will never go away.
I love the description of your lesson being "especially short and wild". Classic. Do you know that old adage, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"? I think Robert Burns must have been thinking of teaching when he wrote it.
ReplyDeleteI remember being similarly frustrated by, but resigned to the fact that school days never move along as planned. If it's not an outside interruption, it's a knot of kids who are absent, throwing off a whole lesson, or a confusion that necessitates re-teaching, or a technology function that doesn't work AND HAS TO in order for the lesson to work. *Big sigh* The important thing is to have that plan, and then to be flexible. Your post makes me think you've accomplished both habits of mind already.
Thanks for introducing this important reality in today's free choice post.