Going Through the Motions

The past few weeks have been on the stressful side.  Part of being a teacher-leader is attending meetings and I have been attending a lot lately.  While in general, I don't mind meetings, these were the types of meetings where I was forced to defend my program.

On quite a few occasions these meetings have cut into my class period, leaving me to scramble to find coverage.  By the time I got to class, I was late, frazzled and already annoyed.  I was happy to see the kids, but felt that I was merely going through the motions of teaching as my mind was elsewhere.  The kids began to feel it too and I could begin to see my class unravel before my eyes before the leaves have fallen off the trees.

The other day I was forced to do something that some teachers refuse to do: I confessed to my class that I have been distracted lately (without going into details) and apologized for not giving them my all.  I told them my plan for moving forward and they readily got on board.  The past few days have been the perfect picture of teaching and learning.  Word of my struggle has spread throughout the school kingdom and some administrators and teacher-leaders have become my allies, so the politics have decreased significantly.  One bright side of all this was that I was able to use my situation as an opportunity to try to angle funding for the upcoming WIDA Conference in Atlanta.  The funding may indeed come through.  Do stay tuned.