I arrive on campus as a nervous, sweaty wreck. I slept last night instead of formalizing lesson plans (due to exhaustion, not laziness) and I feel unprepared. I know the reading assignments. I've read them all, so that is out of the way, but what is the craft lesson? What am I supposed to SAY today?
As I frantically rework the lesson plan I wrote days before, I feel myself begin to panic. Thoughts of discredit and public shame and humiliation plague me, and then the thought comes. It comes in the form of my office mate, LV. She enters the room, asks me how I'm doing, and then proceeds to share with me some of her personal life.
I hate to say it, but it made me feel better. I realized that my problems are small and transitory. LV reminded me that there is a whole big world out there with life going on. I printed my lesson plans and resolved to allow the students to take on the heavier burden of class.
What happened?
Well, it worked. By not being planned down to the absolute limit of the class period, I allowed more room for discussion, for the students' voice. I realized I don't have to be the one with all the answers. Quite the contrary, I should be the one who is full of questions. Let the students find the answers for themselves.
Both my classes went well today and I'm glad. Maybe now I will loosen up a bit and not try so hard to schedule their education.
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