Isn't That the Boy Scouts?

A teacher should always be prepared. Preparation is a funny thing, when you think about it. This week was our prep week for teachers -- oddly filled with more meetings than prep. Oh, so many meetings... But I digress.

I read an article this week called "What Makes a Great Teacher" in which the author was saying a well-prepared teacher with a clear objective and a thoughtful plan for how to accomplish that objective is more effective in the classroom than one who has a dynamic personality or entertaining delivery. At the same time, effective teachers can't be tied to their plans if the students are "getting it." They have to be ready to alter the lesson to meet the needs of students at lots of different levels. This is stressful -- have a plan, but be willing to scrap it, so have another plan ready for that... A compulsive planner could easily go overboard with the back-up plans. I think the best approach is to be well-prepared (yes, with a comprehensive and thoughtful plan), but to accept that you can't think of everything. At any rate, this theory appeals to me because I am well planned. I tell my students this, actually. I tell them, "I ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN." And they know that it's true.

Then there are the students... A very kind 6th grade teacher-friend of mine is going to have a student in her class this year who has been labeled "The Puker" by the specialists at our school. Apparently, whenever he's feeling too anxious, he vomits. Also, when he's upset, he vomits. Oh, and when he's frustrated and wants to get out of class, he vomits. On demand. Fortunately, she knows about it ahead of time and can formulate a plan. Two years ago, one of my nicest boys got sick and threw up in front of the entire class in the middle of the state writing test. I admit, I did not have a plan ready for that.

So we're all supposed to be getting ready for school to start, which, I assume, means lesson plans and copies and seating charts and whatnot, but which, in reality, involves more poster-hanging and file-purging and cabinet-gutting. It's like every teacher needs to start the year with a clean classroom. (Or maybe it's just me. I'm a freak. I couldn't even THINK about lesson plans until I had the boxes unpacked and the chairs pushed in neatly at all the desks.) And whatever planning and preparation you manage to get done will probably be interrupted by all of the people you haven't seen in two months -- welcome interruptions, but interruptions just the same.

Occasionally, you end up down in the office to get something or give something or... something. It's nice to get out of the classroom once in a while, of course, but an educational application of Murphy's Law seems to be that you will only be able to remember to get one thing from the office at a time. And each time, you'll get back to your classroom and realize you needed something else.

Then there's the agony of hanging posters without a laser level. (Is that a thing? I need a laser level!) And it's not just posters. My teaching partner lined up his desks using string -- just to make sure they were all perfectly aligned. And don't even get me started on writing things on the chalkboard or whiteboard -- it would be easier to convince my bunch of pre-teens that a line of writing SHOULD angle down like that.

Yikes, this post is scattered. (HA! That was my plan all along! It's an example for you of how my workday went today.)