Slice of Life: These Days of Discombobulation

(This is for the Slice of Life challenge, hosted by Two Writing Teachers. We write on Tuesdays about the small moments in the larger perspective … or is that the larger perspective in the smaller moments? You write, too.)

It’s easy to forget what creatures of habit we are … until something disrupts our routines. For the past few years, my teaching schedule has been fairly stable. Most of my classes began on the hour, so I knew as the minute hand approached the 12 that we had better start getting ready to switch classes. The visual cue was my friend.

This year, all that has changed. We’ve added a new intervention block into our day, and our specials (art, music, etc.) got shifted later into the morning, and then our lunch got moved ten minutes later (our sixth graders don’t eat until 1:15 p.m.). This has meant that the flow of day is always in flux, and I am constantly relying on my paper schedule to figure out where we are in the block and how much time we have left.


discombobulation flickr photo by TheoJunior shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

I’m discombobulated. (And a cool word to say out loud. Go ahead.)

Which I suppose is par for the course at the start of the year for students, too, and so my sixth graders and I are in this together. I’ve told them, be patient — we’ll all be where we need to be when we get there.

So far, so good.

Peace (starting),
Kevin

 

7 Comments
  1. First of all, I adore the word discombobulated! It’s awesome!! Secondly, new schedules stress me out too. I set alarms on my phone last year to give me a three or four minute warning before every single class. It helped a lot! Good luck with the new schedule!

  2. “Discombobulated” is a word I tend to use on a weekly basis; there never seems to be the same schedule in the library, a fact that came to the forefront when I was counting up my lessons last year for my annual report. Some weeks, I see all the classes, some weeks not, due to interruptions in the schedule. Good luck with your transition!

  3. I love the sound of discombobulated! It can apply to so many things in life and the world right now! Good luck has you find your way through those discombobulations.

  4. Discombobulated is a great word! It sounds like a happy frustration instead of a whiny one. Shifting schedules certainly can feel that way. I, like Michelle, used my phone alarms for a time when I moved here as the schedule was so unfamiliar to me. Glad your sixth graders have you!

  5. Funny how one extra period can throw everyone off and make them discombobulated! I totally get it.

    Here’s to finding peace with the new schedule in the weeks to come.

  6. Get the students to find you an app that will help with scheduling alarms or get someone to be the timekeeper for a day or a week?

    Antispamifloofery: ace mecca I was flipping through the big fat cable directory the other day looking for some rando show when I ran across Jim Carey’s new show, “Ace Mecca, Islamic Detective”. I thought to myself, “That looks good.”

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