Switching Gears

I’m watching the snow fall, building itself higher and higher into snow drifts that would reach my thighs, maybe even my waist. Writing on a piece of paper versus typing on a computer adds to the solitude I am feeling- but not lonely… peaceful.

In my last post I had feared having not completed as much of my unit as I had thought necessary to show as a bench marker for how far I had come- for how far I would be going. I knew that the responses from my peers were both reflective and endearing- but then I saw it in action.

Thursday I had was teaching a lesson I had formed around The Things They Carried and was going to have students start writing their own letters for homework, either to or from someone in the Vietnam War. I had students view a PBS film I had found online showing different wars/battles throughout history while narrators read letters written from the time. After the film, students responded to how they felt after viewing it- they were emotional and moved, many of them speaking from the point of view of the writers- they were in the perfect place to begin composing their own letters. But in my lesson plan, having not foreseen the emotion that would be felt here at this moment, I was planning on switching gears and going over a handout I had made on dialectical responses, a very structured writing format for students to utilize when finally having to write their papers. After all, the letter was supposed to be homework.

I watched the class for a moment, knowing the time I had put in creating the lesson plan for the day, knowing how it would affect the following lesson, and knew in my gut, that it felt plain wrong to switch gears, after all of the emotion they were feeling, to simply shut them down and proceed with the mechanics of the dialectical responses. And so, I made a quick change of plans, and allowed students to proceed with the writing on their letters. Their pieces of writing show the emotions they were feeling and how they truly invested pieces of themselves in the letters. I do not think I would have had the same affect had I moved forward as planned and assigned the letters for homework. So. Here's to being reflective my friends and thank you for being so supportive along the way.

“He that will not reflect is a ruined man.”
Asian Proverb