Reclaiming Sanity

A few weeks ago I posted how relaxed I was because I was going at an appropriate pace for my students.  My calm demeanor was creating a calm demeanor for them.  Last week I noticed that I was speeding up, doing a lot.  I reminded myself how successful the first 3 weeks were because of the relaxed pace & made a mental note to return to that.  Let's just say that this past week that did not happen.  There were a variety of influences creating the stress that was making me go at rapid speed.

The end result?  My students began behaving differently.  They began to bicker with each other, snap at each other, pay less attention, talk over adults & classmates.  I know that it's my fault.  I know that I was behaving like Speedy Gonzalez.  Not only giving directions at a sprinter's rate, but jamming 3 or more lessons into 1.  Here I am very aware that it IS my fault that my students are taking a turn, but none-the-less I head in to lecture mode.  Now, I am fulfilling the definition of insanity by repeating this 'ritual' daily for a full week.

Thankfully, we have a 3 day school week this upcoming week.  An opportune time for me to re-collect.  Think about what was working well & go back to that.  I want to maintain the strong classroom community I began to build.