Yesterday was a challenging day in school. I came in ready. My room looked great. Then as soon as the day started, the interruptions began. First a colleague interrupted the morning flow with another agenda. Though not intentional, her efforts disrupted a routine we put in place to ensure a good start for some students. Later, repeated announcements over the intercom created stress by requesting efforts that are mostly impossible and challenging when you are teaching a large group of children. And, there were other comments and efforts that further challenged the day--a day that I had hoped would mean successful teaching with regard to a number of expected learning tasks.
What could I have done?
First, I have to assure myself that it's okay to keep the focus on the children. When others want to interrupt that, I don't have to follow, and have a right to speak up to say, "I'm here to teach, and as much as possible, we have to plan those extraneous efforts for time that doesn't interrupt the teaching.
Next, I have to be more communicative to those who work with me and around me when it comes to the need for focus to get the good teaching done. I can't teach well with lots of interruptions. I have to keep the focus on what we are doing as when I lose focus so do the children, and then the good teaching doesn't happen.
Third, I have to analyze where the little annoyances are happening and work to make change in those areas. Mostly, to change in this area, means explaining better what I am doing and why I am doing it. For some who may not have been teaching as long as I have been teaching, it may not be clear why I am doing some of the things I do while I teach. Hence, I need to be more clear.
In some ways, we're still feeling the challenge that having an unready administrator at the start of the year caused. Though that situation has been remedied, there are still some after affects.
Today will be a better day. I have good lessons planned and some time for prep and planning too. Yesterday was a good reminder of what it takes to teach well. Onward.
