Phew, this is hard!

I am having a very hard time keeping up with everything. There are so many different systems and routines built into the 5th-grade day and they are all managed, maybe micro-managed. How will I ever get them all down? Or is the best answer to just say, OK, well, I'll explicitly teach them these things, but if it does not work, I will not freak, because you know what, no matter how they get from Jane's class to Jean's class, they will most likely all get there in one piece with little sidetracking (hopefully). These are not kindergarteners, the classrooms are not that far apart, and they are very unlikely to get lost. The intentional sidetracking probably won't happen till later, and hopefully by then, I will have the system figured out so I can call the kids on it.

They will figure it out eventually. The hard thing is that you have to teach it to them, and in order to teach it to them, you have to understand all the complexities and nuances that are part of the classroom management plan for 5th grade. It is intensely organized. But legitimately so.

Another thing, how is it right for an administrator to be up talking about 10 and 2 strategy (you talk for 10, they talk independently for 2, then you bring them back), keeping exercise involved in the day because it is one of the Brain Rules, (from the book, Brain Rules) as is a stimulating environment with lots going on, and then proceed to talk at you for an hour or so with no exercise breaks or anything that follows the Brain Rules. Most teachers that I know are not used to sitting down listening for the whole day. They stand, they roam the classroom, they interact with students and teachers, and it is hard for them to focus for that long; they are not used to it.

Maybe that's just environmental educators who can't sit and listen for long, but I tell you, I never thought I was one of those kids who always needed to move until I went back to school after teaching students in informal education settings for 5 years or so. I am fidgety, I need to move, or talk a lot, one of the two. Is that OK for me as a teacher to be that way? Am I setting a bad model because I cannot sit and listen for longer than 20 minutes without massive bouts of fidgeting or raising my hand to share?