Slow Down, Jazz Cats

Teaching life means we are in a state of constant movement. Fast movement. All the time.
Things are urgent. Always urgent. We rush around, flitting through stacks of books, papers, reports, articles, pots-its, digging through packed cupboards, quickly trying to find something we think we need to teach, or give to a parent or admin. 

This continuous rushing around can negatively impact our effectiveness and shift our focus away from our students. We let all the "emergencies" or urgent things distract us from our students. We feel like this is inevitable and this feeling makes us think that by not filling in paperwork, writing that report, or getting those lessons written just right, that we are less than the best teacher we know we are. 

It way easier for us to get wound up than it is to slow down and unwind - but the good news is that we can do this. We can refocus on our students AND tend to the other things - but we can only do that if we intentionally to tell ourselves to SLOW DOWN, even just a little.

• Slowing down can mean taking a few minutes to think about the how, the what, and the when,
• Slowing down can mean evaluating your planned experiences for students so they cover big ideas or concepts to open up time for deeper learning, 
• Slowing down can mean observing students and reflecting on how the presented experience is received in real time,
• Slowing down can mean capping your administrative task time to 20 minutes in your day, prioritizing the most "urgent" task to be completed first on your schedule.

Slowing down definitely does not mean to stop doing what you need to do. It just means being more intentional about your use of time and thinking about your priorities.