Back in the day I was the most inflexible and rigid teacher, maybe who ever lived. I can tell you now, I’m perhaps the most flexible teacher I know. Well, perhaps not, but certainly up there! Flexibility is certainly a learned skill. And that’s a great thing because it means it is something that you can get better at.
I honestly believe that the first school I worked in, which was chaos central taught me a lot about being a flexible teacher. If I didn’t pick up the flexibility skill, I wouldn’t have survived to the end of the school year.
How to increase teacher flexibility
It’s not easy to learn flexibility as a teacher. Trust me, I’ve been THROUGH it. My first two years I taught in a school where the kids were on a field trip about once a week. It was pretty torturous to show up to school and basically none of your students are there. In order to become more flexible, I found myself asking “Is this important to me or is this actually important?” This simple question gave me some insight into the level of worry I should have regarding the issue. If it is something that is just important to me, I don’t really need to worry about it so much. If it’s something that is actually important, it’s time to find a way to fix the problem.
In this episode of the All Star Planning Podcast, I give you some insight into how I have used this question to grow my flexibility as a teacher. Like I said, this is a learned skill. Which means over the years, I will get better at it. Perhaps I’ll even come back for a two point oh episode when I learn even more. For now, these are my tips for becoming a more flexible teacher.
Episodes you may be interested in: Reflecting on Your Lessons, You Don’t Need to Grade Every Assignment
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