Learning to Tell Time

Before Christmas, I spent a lot of time planning the “perfect” first week back. I knew what both my CEA and I would be engaged in, and there were a lot of integrated and differentiated activities planned for the students. In addition to that, I had interviewed them to build a new interest inventories in order to personalize book selections. We also decided on learning targets for this term with the students. All of this was connected to the curricular and core competencies.

However … (haha) … in the words of Robbie Burns, “The best laid plans of mice and men [and women] often go awry.” Well, they certainly didn’t go awry, but I knew that something had to change. I'm glad that I was paying attention and was able to adjust by Day 2 already.

I learned the Montessori principle of following the child yet again. Or as the author Christina Baldwin says, “Move at the pace of guidance.”

Even after over 30 years of teaching, I still over-planned and tried to hurry things up to fit it all in. I felt time-pressured (self-inflicted) to move things along quickly because I really only 8 weeks this term before I have to prepare for the next groups/schools in April. (Two weeks of testing, reporting, conferring, and planning in the first half of March; two weeks for Spring Break in the second half.) The result was that we all felt stressed.

Reflections on Day 3: Slightly adjusted plan, but not forced. Flow in the classroom today. Learning and connections taking place. Happy kids and adults.

Time will teach us many things - we can’t speed it up or slow it down. So, give yourself the freedom to let go of it and see how things evolve instead.