Slow Down and Think

Fast Llamas,

I have been thinking and thinking about what to talk about today and my head is swimming with possibilities.  I want to talk about so much... ugh! prioritizing has never been a strong suit of mine, I want to do it all and do it at once, right away!  So, I will follow the advice of my blog title today and simply slow down and think.  

Last week I sat down with two new teachers and started conversations about their classrooms.  I wanted to hear what they wanted their classrooms to be and to give insight to things they may not be thinking about.  I firmly believe that a lot of what makes teaching challenging are small student behaviors that multiply and eat away at your sanity because they are so constant.  That's the bad news, but the good news is with small adjustments, these small annoyances' can be eliminated quickly. A certain number of small teacher moves can make a big difference.  

I shared with these new teachers Doug Curry's document about preparing for the first day of school.  The Big Day!  

Fast Llama Guidelines for the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

It's a long article, but very thorough and reflective.  It leaves nothing to chance!  Both teachers I visited with were taken aback with the amount to think about.  But, here's the deal, think it about it now, and be ready, or wait until it is happening in real time and you end up reacting.  So, both teachers went home with "homefun" to read through the document and ahem, prioritize what needs attention now and what can wait for day two and three... etcetera.  

Other than keeping your sanity, being proactive keeps you happy.  And happy teachers are fast llama teachers.  When you realize:

1. your classroom will be whatever you want it to be

2.  student behavior is under your control 

3. students are relying on you for their learning, they want a confident teacher with a non-chaotic classroom

Here's some advice for the first day:

1.  Practice your door greeting, how will you check students in and how will they know where to sit?

2. Script out what you are going to say for each stage of the period - Think about what you will be doing and what the students will be doing.  Think about when you have a kid who doesn't respond.

    What do you want _____________ to look like, ideally, what are students doing?

What are you doing? What makes it effective?

3. Practice the script in your classroom

    - how will you start?  what's the first thing you say when the bells sounds?

     - where will you stand, how will you stand - plant your feet, stand still

    - practice your voice level so it is strong, it should sound confident, but not condescending, sarcastic or threatening.  You want a formal register.

     - practice making eye contact and scanning the room so that you include everyone

4.  On the first day, put a checkmark on your script as you move through each part.  Why?  Well, on my first day of teaching ever, I was way more nervous that I thought I would be... I kept forgetting what I had said to which class.  I kept asking the kids, "have I told you this?"  This made me appear to be unprepared, scattered and it wasn't a good look in terms of my confidence.  

5. Practice your timing, seek advice from your team for how long they will give for each task during the period.

6. Practice positive narration, celebrate when the students are responding the way you want them to.

We have one more week to prepare and get ready for kids... use this time to reflect on what you love about your classroom and what needs some fixes.  The more we think about what we want our classrooms to look like, sound like and feel like the better it will be!

until next time...