In your head

So I've been thinking about something Mrs. C said to me and it has yet to leave my mind since she said it. After class one day, we were talking and she said "You're still completely in your head. It's like that during student teaching and the first two years or so. You're so wrapped up in your head that you're not there with the students."

This is really been one of my biggest problems, not just as a teacher but as a person. I tend to plan and contingency plan for if my plans go awry. It's more a defense mechanism to the possibility of failure but it's just become in a lot of ways the way I live. I plan and plan and structure and then when my plans start to break down I get a brief deer in the headlights moment before I roll with it and come up with another plan.

I've been trying to work more on improvisation. I know in a lot of ways teaching is an art, but for me this goes beyond just teaching. The ability to roll with the punches and change direction and tact is important to me and I feel as if often my plans are simply too rigid to necessarily work. This is another goal of mine for my student teaching: to develop better improv skills, such that I can at least get rid of the noticeable deer in the headlights moments.

The wedding this weekend was amazing and exhausting. I was part of the technical crew and we got it all set up and running. The wedding itself was on Sunday, and it rained and poured Friday and Saturday. Then on Sunday, the sun came out, the sky cleared off and it was warm and wonderful. I'm glad everything went well and my two friends (who have been dating for ten years!) are now married!