Finding Your Rhythm

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises?  If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

         Henry David Thoreau


This is your time for...

• Demonstrating who you are as a teacher to your students and to your colleagues

Your identity as a teacher is important.  So much of who you are is transferred to your students every day, often without even realizing it is happening.  It is not unlikely that your students will act in ways that mirror your own behavior.  If you want students to be more thoughtful, make a point of demonstrating your own thinking.  Use a "think aloud" strategy to make your thinking about academic and social problem solving more transparent.  Then ask students what they heard you say and saw you do.

Reserve judgement when talking to your colleagues.  Presume they have positive intentions, it's likely they do.  It's easy to misspeak and injure each other's sense of teacher identity.  Listen carefully and ask questions for clarification when you are communicating with each other.  When you do this in front of your students, you are demonstrating positive social skills that they can (and will) emulate later.

• Putting in place the rituals and routines that set the pace and tone in your classroom

Create a rhythm in your classroom with a few daily rituals and routines...and then stick with them,  This will help center your students and create a more peaceful classroom environment.  Select your routines carefully, too many and children will feel over scheduled and stressed, too few and they may feel lost and without an anchor.  Choose rituals that are meaningful to your students and help them to understand why they are important, for example "applying" for classroom jobs, or beginning every day with a special message, quotation, or meeting time. Build in opportunities for your students to feel successful in following the routines you set up, and verbally acknowledge their attempts and capacity for sticking to these routines; "Juan, you knew exactly what to do this morning, that helps to make the start of our day run smoothly."