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Thursday, January 27, 2011

I never thought I was this flexible!

When I used to take fitness tests in school, I was never very flexible. I tend to be "tall stiff white guy" -- we were going over adjectives today -- and my results were always poor. There's that test where you sit on the ground with your legs out straight and your feet up against a board, and you bend forward as far as you can. I never did well on that.

However, in these past few years, I have discovered that while I might not be able to lick the backs of my knees, I am actually VERY flexible after all! I am constantly being asked to contort myself symbolically at school and then being thanked for my extreme flexibility. ALL of us are, actually.

Here are a few examples of my (and my colleague's) flexibility:

1) Receiving no planning period for 4 out of the 5 days of this week.

2) Allowing random construction workers to come into my room at all times to examine/fix/eff-up the new HVAC unit.

3) Moving out into the hallway and then an upstairs classroom when the HVAC unit goes all "Lost Smoke Monster" on us.

4) Accepting the new door that is supposed to (someday maybe?) be put on my classroom which will not be lockable, probably for the rest of the year. Also, having every single child and transient within earshot KNOWING that my room won't lock, courtesy of that fact being stated on the public address system.

5) Making sub plans for emergency half-day planning periods that are announced the day before.

6) Kudos to my colleague down the hall for smoothly course correcting when she sent students to the cafeteria at 1:45 to pick up today's fruit samples (as we were told to do), and when a fire drill was then run at precisely 1:45.

7) Flexibility from the 1st grade teachers who will implement departmentalization starting tomorrow...

I'm learning a lot about myself this year, and I'm proud to say that I'm 34% more flexible than ever!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

FLEXIBLE-

Is there not a better word for what you cite examples?

I had to get out of there!

AJ

fwteacher said...

Wow! That is a lot to be flexible about. Our building was under construction last year. Things were pretty crazy. We have also been under construction figuratively for the past two years as the school district re-staffed the school and now we are part of a school turn-around program. I have also learned more about being flexible that I ever thought possible.

loonyhiker said...

Your example 2 reminded me of the time that they put in a new heating unit in my classroom. My class was a high school LD self contained class and we were reading the novel The Scarlet Letter. During our discussion, even the 4 workmen wanted to join in the discussion and began raising their hands to talk! LOL

Angela Watson said...

Departmentalization in 1st grade? I am a big fan of the concept (no elementary school teacher is a true expert in reading, writing, math, science, health, AND social studies) but departmentalizing with six-year-olds sounds...challenging. Surely the students will stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers will rotate. THAT would definitely require a great deal of flexibility.

Mister Teacher said...

AJ, you missed the major shakeup!

fw - it's amazing, right! You just never know what you're capable of until ridiculous demands are placed on you.

Loony, that sounds like the workers at our school. They'd rather participate in a class activity than actually DO the work they're there to do!!

Angela, it might be a great idea, but 2 weeks into the second semester???? And no, I'm sure the kids will switch rooms, not the teachers. I mean, the subject materials are in the rooms, not with the teachers!!

Anonymous said...

Mister Teacher,

Email me privately to explain please.

"AJ, you missed the major shakeup!"

AJ-

ps. I don't have your new address.

Anonymous said...

At my school, kindergarten is somewhat "departmentalized." One of us teaches language arts/social studies and the other does math/science. The kids switch at half day. Our principal loves it and if our test results are good, it'll probably stay that way :( I'm not such a big fan b/c our kids are so little and need so much from us, that having that many kids is exhausting!