Hand n' hand: November 2010

Welcome to My Classroom

To some it may not seem like much, but when I’m in my classroom I feel like I have a purpose. I feel like I’m doing something not only for myself, but for my students and my community. Yes, some days I want to scurry out at the end of the day without glimpsing back dreaming about days off which are nonexistent, as I’m well aware of. Some days I enjoy it so much I don’t want to leave. There are weeks that go by without a hitch and I feel like I’m doing something right. In those weeks/days teaching is almost easy, effortless so to speak, which leaves me blindsided and totally unprepared for the upcoming weeks that do not turn out to well. In these weeks I painstakingly get out of bed, treading on egg shells at that time already, in fear of damaging everything I encounter. These weeks can turn out to be a total dilemma and will be if I enter my class room having expectations of the individuals who learn there which they are incapable of fulfilling.

I wonder if I’m in denial… I must be to think that every day should go perfectly according to my plans. I’m not even in control and to think I am and to live like I am is just a set up for disappointment, yet still I do it . It’s on days like this when I foolishly put trust in myself and forget about trusting God to get me through.

Subsequently, at the end of the day I sit at my desk for maybe the second time that day, I go over my day plan and reflect on the events of the day. To my utter dismay we didn’t get as much done as I had anticipated. What do I do when we fail to accomplish as much as I had planned –I completely and utterly panic, thinking that I’m doing something so dreadfully wrong that it will take years of education under a different educator to correct my heinous errors . However, I’m hoping that’s not the case….

My point is this: When I trudge to school at 8:30 in the morning I shouldn’t be thinking that today will be a perfect day to teach my students all 20 Matter definitions, to make a flip book out of them, to finish the diorama we’ve been working on for weeks, to get the Math and Social Studies unit done, to teach 3 different grades 3 different ELA Lessons and all the while thinking I’ll have time to plan a new Science unit in-between. I should be walking to school thinking that today I get another amazing opportunity to teach my students, to watch then learn and to learn along with them. I should expect nothing and my students would be fulfilling and exceeding all the expectations I had for that day. Nobody, not even I, performs at the same level daily and I expect my students to be able to do just that some weeks. The less we seem to get done, the more I try to get done and it’s not working. Last week just didn’t work for any of us.

Therefore, this week I’m trying something different. I get up in the morning and I ask God to please show me what to do because I don’t know what that is anymore. I ask to be accepting of my students and their capabilities and most importantly I ask God to help me realize that I can’t make unreasonable expectations and wait for them to be accomplished no matter how reasonable they seem to me. I try to face the day with a more relaxed perspective. As I plan my day I reasonably ponder on whether we can get some things done that I have in mind to and then I remind myself that even if we don’t accomplish what we should today….it’s OK. If my students don’t learn about the entire world of Matter like I wanted them to, it’s OK because at least I taught them the concept of patience and acceptance. Those too, are valuable lessons, which they can apply to their lives, and even now as they journey through the years of their youth.

The moral of this story: No expectations are the best expectations.

Ohhhh and I think my classroom is worth bragging about so here are some photos I’ve been wanting to share for quite some time.

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