Finding Balance as a Teacher

Teachers are asked to do everything. And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING. We are asked to create not only meaningful and rewarding learning experiences for all students, but make them all fun and engaging as well. We are asked to prepare students for career readiness, to be more compassionate and understanding than the average human being, to be perfect and never fail, to prepare students to pass standardized tests, and to develop ourselves professionally - doing all these things while still doing the work of living as a person outside of work. Where’s the balance for teachers?

Spoiler alert: we have to make our own balance because no one else will. Remember, harsh as it sounds, we are all replaceable in the eyes of administration and society.

My point is don’t be so tied to lesson plans. Try letting go of the ropes just a bit and leave some room for lesson “unplanning”. Students, just like everyone else, also need opportunities and space to productively engage with uncertainty. Lesson “unplanning” involves adding a little uncertainty into the plan by removing some of the pre-determined features. This makes room for students to identify different ways of solving existing problems, find their own problems to solve, and develop their own solutions to those problems.

Professional writers can break the rules because they know the rules of writing. This advice only applies to skilled and experienced teachers. If you don’t know the basics of how to make and teach to a lesson plan by heart, please don’t do some lesson “unplanning”.

Last tip, don’t grade everything. Just grade one or two items of student work per week. The rest is just practice. That is okay, and, I assure you, everything will be fine.