I have had a few time outs this year. And not the "I made a poor choice and need to go sit on the rug" kind of time out, but breaks from school. To date, my district has had five and a half snow/inclement weather days. Now I have loved everyone of those early morning or late evening calls from the school secretary saying, "No school tomorrow!" in her sing-song voice. Yet, when I reported back to work this week (for a three day week-awful, I know) life felt disjointed. The kids were out of sorts, I was out of sorts, my team teacher and our intern were out of sorts. And don't even get me started on our lesson plans! The good thing was we have lesson plans for the coming school week because we didn't accomplish half of what was planned for last week. But still, the inconsistency made an impact. Yes, it was lovely to not have to host indoor recess for another week straight (I couldn't even blog I was so stressed out. I may have even blacked some of those days out of my memory.) but I also found myself kind of wanting to get back to the routine.
What made me come to this conclusion was thinking of the students in my class that thrive under routine and predictability and observing their behavior when we finally did return to school. My team teacher and I pride ourselves on being consistent with everything-our schedule, our behavior management, grading styles and our coffee consumption. We also do try to be flexible and help our students understand that things happen and change has to occur too. But man, those kids really struggled this week. First, there was the feeling of unfairness because when we finally went back to class we were the only school in our county to do so (explain that to 58 ten year olds. Yeesh). Then there was the stumbling of "What day is it? What special do we have? What's for lunch?" And on top of that, I was out of our classroom for one and a half of the three days we reported! It is enough to make a kid or teacher crazy. And it did. Our class behaviors spiked, the work effort went down and morale as a whole was in the tank. When kids were released to outdoor recess after two weeks of being cooped up inside it was a re-enactment of the running of the bulls. Those struggling kids were off the charts and reverting to behaviors we had not seen for months. MONTHS. Needless to say, it was bad enough for this teacher who does a selfish happy dance every time I get that cancellation call (and usually in front of my husband who always has to go to work) to feel okay with not having school cancelled.
Consistency is important. Routine is important. Flexibility is too, but it is all a great balancing act that every school district in Michigan is juggling. Snow days are necessary when the elements are more than we can handle and there is the potential for risk in regards to student safety. But something I am not sure I can handle anymore is a break from our routine. As much as I love time out of the classroom as the next teacher, I find myself wanting to get back to the routine of normalcy. As normal as a teachers life can get anyway. So here's to hoping that Monday I have school, I am in the classroom and life can settle down.
What made me come to this conclusion was thinking of the students in my class that thrive under routine and predictability and observing their behavior when we finally did return to school. My team teacher and I pride ourselves on being consistent with everything-our schedule, our behavior management, grading styles and our coffee consumption. We also do try to be flexible and help our students understand that things happen and change has to occur too. But man, those kids really struggled this week. First, there was the feeling of unfairness because when we finally went back to class we were the only school in our county to do so (explain that to 58 ten year olds. Yeesh). Then there was the stumbling of "What day is it? What special do we have? What's for lunch?" And on top of that, I was out of our classroom for one and a half of the three days we reported! It is enough to make a kid or teacher crazy. And it did. Our class behaviors spiked, the work effort went down and morale as a whole was in the tank. When kids were released to outdoor recess after two weeks of being cooped up inside it was a re-enactment of the running of the bulls. Those struggling kids were off the charts and reverting to behaviors we had not seen for months. MONTHS. Needless to say, it was bad enough for this teacher who does a selfish happy dance every time I get that cancellation call (and usually in front of my husband who always has to go to work) to feel okay with not having school cancelled.
Consistency is important. Routine is important. Flexibility is too, but it is all a great balancing act that every school district in Michigan is juggling. Snow days are necessary when the elements are more than we can handle and there is the potential for risk in regards to student safety. But something I am not sure I can handle anymore is a break from our routine. As much as I love time out of the classroom as the next teacher, I find myself wanting to get back to the routine of normalcy. As normal as a teachers life can get anyway. So here's to hoping that Monday I have school, I am in the classroom and life can settle down.