Mindful Redirection

Three weeks into the school year and I feel like I'm a month behind already. I hate that this is my opening line to my blog. Way to be positive, right? Perhaps this is the therapy I need to get myself going into the right direction.

I told my wife today that perhaps the decision to go off my medication (for those in the dark, I started a round of Lexapro a few years back for the demons/immaturity of depression, with mixed results and have been off them since this past spring), not because of an outburst or because I'm losing my mind, but because of the lack of focus that has seemed to plague me over the summer. I routinely find myself driving back to the house to pick up something I missed, or driving home and forgetting that I had to stop somewhere (like now, I have pictures at Target to pick up). I start one project at school, and I stand up and realize that other things need to be done. I lay my clipboard down somewhere and freak out when I cannot find it. Perhaps I've been ADHD all this time, it would explain some of my boyishness as a kid, but then again, it's probably just an excuse. My memory is quite acute, as I could vividly remember past events as if they were unfolding before me. I forget names but not faces. Why is it I cannot remember where I laid my wallet?

In my refusal to read boring basals and stick with the old, I've been working on novels in Reading, which would explain some of my trepidation coming into this week. Along with a newfound focus on vocabulary, I feel like I'm generating new lessons every day. I create, I adjust on the fly and I evaluate. Thank goodness for that kind of leverage, and I surely wont go back to the old just to make myself more comfortable. My Monday, however, was pretty typical of what my mind must be doing.

I get a new student about five minutes in, no paperwork. Cleaned out a desk and got her to work. Phone rings two or three times, parent wanting work (he's recovering from a diabetic fit and a hospital stay, and thats what a parent wants? Seriously?). Computer is slowing down with every touch of the Smartboard. Music teacher comes in, suddenly other kids are reminded that they need to talk to her, lose five students. Afternoon comes, forget there is an assembly, lose 20 minutes. This bleeds into today, Obama speech at 1pm, lose 30 minutes redirecting sleeping students to sit up, remind them of their "personal code," which apparently has nothing to do with zoning out to streaming video of their president's motivational speech as it freezes and makes him look like he's giving funny faces ever half minute.

What am I looking forward to? Reading my student responses to their personal code of conduct based on their 6 levels of happiness (thanks to Rafe Esquith's "Teach Like your Hair's on Fire"). I'm reinforcing the why we behave and that it has nothing to do about rewards or incentives (which are great motivators of used correctly). Not a new concept but I'm working on making our room the place where acting the way we are made to act is safe and conducive to learning. Let the games begin!