As with so many things in my life, I planned on visiting this blog every day and posting my whimsical thoughts about teaching. It didn't happen. I got sucked into that swirling vortex of first week of school madness and this is the first time I'm catching a breath. Plus, I had a tooth out last Friday and for some reason I am the rare, odd person whose tooth didn't heal properly.I have harbored all sorts of useful thoughts about my teaching that I could have recorded on this blog. I had ideas about refining lesson plans and tweaking certain activities that I might have shared, but alas, they slipped away like sand hills in the tide, and now I'm left having to piece them back together.
The first day of students went off without a hitch. They filed in and followed (all except one stray child) my bidding. That stray child decided to whisper incessantly to a neighbor. This is not unusual the first day of school, but it always surprises me and sets me on edge. Why don't they know to immediately respect my benevolent authority? I should be an old pro at this. Nothing should phase me. I should be more like my husband, a man who can walk without flinching into an icy lake like a placid buddha. This day, however, I think I had finally learned my lesson. I have been reading, Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov (featured above left-find out more at: uncommonschools.org). It is a practical how to about teaching, a rare book that doesn't spend pages on dry philosophy. It cuts to the chase and models concrete classroom methodology rather than pedagogy. I know my kids and Doug Lemov reinforces this. They cannot bear a public walk of shame. I took the talker into my room as inconspicuously as possible. I already had a heads up that he had some issues last year and seems to have started this year with a better attitude.
