The First Day, Twenty-Eight Years Later

I'm writing this week's newsletter from my old Lazy Boy chair trying to keep my eyes open. Today was my first day with students, kicking off my 28th year of teaching.

I've been thinking about the things I believed about teaching when I started my career. Some turned out to be way off and others still hold true to this day. I've included a prompt below, I wonder would your answer would be?

Here are a quote, a resource, a book, and an affirmation to help you power through the rest of your week.

Quote

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." — John Wooden

Have you ever really gone all in on planning a lesson - sequencing it, anticipating questions, timing the transitions to the minute - and everything still goes sideways? One of your students walked in already having a rough morning. There was a fire drill that ate up 12 minutes of class. Half of the room didn't understand, no matter how many ways you explained it.

When I first started teaching, I thought that if I put the time in, really planning things out, all of my students would be engaged and the class would be easy to manage. Eventually I learned this isn't always to the case.

So much is beyond our control as teachers. Planning is still important. It's something that's necessary and within our control. We just have to remember to give ourselves some grace when things don't turn out the way we wanted them to.

Reflection:

Think back to your very first "night before" as a brand-new teacher. What's one thing you knew for certain then that you'd tell that version of yourself is dead wrong now — and one thing you knew then that's turned out to still be true?

Hit reply and let me know what you come up.

Read This Next

The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner isn't about teaching, but it's the clearest explanation I've found for why "did I do my part" matters more than "did it work." Sterner spent years as a concert piano technician learning to fall in love with process over outcome, and the whole book is basically an argument for why the doing is the point — not just the result. (As an affiliate, I may earn a small commission from purchases made through this link).

Worth Your Time

• Neuroscientist on Why Classrooms Should Skip Screens and Start Printing Things Out (CBS Sunday Morning) — Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath breaks down what he told the Senate about classroom technology, and it's a pretty direct challenge to the assumption that more tech automatically means better learning. Not exactly this week's topic, but it's the same underlying idea: what you plan and prepare with matters more than the shiny thing you're tempted to lean on instead. Watch here
• Are Student Attention Spans Really Shrinking? (Edutopia) — Turns out it's probably not that kids can't focus anymore — it's that they're choosing not to invest the effort, because low-friction digital stuff has trained their brains to expect instant reward. Worth reading if you've ever wondered whether your carefully planned lesson is fighting biology or just fighting habit. Read here
• When You Mess Up as a Teacher: Repair, Don't Defend (STRONG Teacher Report) — Watch here

Now Repeat...

I plan with care and release with peace — both are part of the job.

P.S. If this week's reflection stirred something up — or if you just want somewhere to put the good stuff you're building this year — I've got a few resources over on Ko-fi, including the STRONG Framework workbook. No pressure, just there if you want it. 💛