This has been one of the best teaching years. The students are well supported. We have what we need to teach. I have a great team. Yet that doesn't mean there aren't difficult days. There's been about 4 difficult days this year and today is one of them. Why the challenge?
Mostly the challenge lies in the fact that I'm teaching some dreadful details, the kind of learning that students grasp at very different rates and the kinds of details that aren't that much fund to learn with one size fits all lessons. Yet the time left to teach the material is short and the best way to get there is all-class or "follow the leader" lessons.
These lessons exasperate some children, and when children are exasperated, they act out which makes it difficult for the rest of the class to learn. In a week or so we'll be past the worst of it and able to move on to more interesting and more engaging fare. In the meantime, I'll see how I can make this learning less cumbersome and more engaging. Thankfully the year has had significantly more good and very good days than the few not-so-good days we ecounter.