Teacheree

For English Language Arts, I have a… ‘fluid’ pacing plan? Notice my noncommittal single quotation marks. I’m just not going to commit to a plan ahead of time when I don’t know what the room feels like yet. I meet my students where they are. I think on my feet. I teach in the present. So my desk is scattered with the carcasses of butchered lessons. And no, I don’t care. I love my desk. I can’t find it, but I love it.

To that end, I generally have 15 ideas in the back of my mind at any one time, and have lessons prepped for Plan A, ready to change to Plan B, or C, or D, when I walk in, ok sprint in: I tend to run late. (There should be a Family Feud episode between teachers who run late and those other people: the weird morning people. I see you.) Inevitably, something changes and I create something new on the spot that ends up being better than anything I could have planned ahead for anyway. Happy Plan E! It’s just my process, ok!

My sister-in-law, on the other hand, uses the Raley’s e-cart and plans ahead for her entire week of meals. And she doesn’t go back to the store until the following week. Like… she doesn’t forget anything or change her mind and ever have to swing by the store on her way home from work… yeah. Disgusting, I know! How does she know what she wants without walking down the aisles? Some people are Super Mom’s that way. (I hope she never reads this; might make her head too big.) I didn’t get that gene. I used to, ok I still do, run into my mom every other day at the grocery store; we joke that we go there to say howdy to the checkers because we missed them. I guess we just both share a fluid sense of the word “planning ahead.”

Addendum: Upon further reflection, I buy a lot of avocados because they can work for breakfast, lunch, OR dinner. And my favorite shoes are the ones that “go with everything!” I’m noticing a trend. Maybe that’s why I love using poetry so much… it’s the avocado of the language arts classroom: close reading, figurative language, writing, discussion, creativity, critical thinking… *sigh*… so satisfying.