As a young, aspiring singer/songwriter, I dreamed of creating something incredible.

Inspired by The Beatles, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, and Bob Dylan — in other words, world-class, genre-defining, generational talents — I thought about where my music would fit in the pantheon of the greats.

In my “planning,” I completely skipped over the part where I would write, perform, and promote my music, connecting with potential partners and fans one by one, building a career the way everyone has to build a career: day by day.

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One of the more painful things about teaching middle school is bearing witness to uncomfortable social dynamics and not being able to do anything about it.

Certainly, when there's an opportunity to do so, I will coach a student on how to be more effective in building relationships. But in the moment, it would be inappropriate for me to say anything. Thus, I just have to listen and cringe.

“My dad’s friend has a pet hawk who’s trained to send messages to people.”

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A colleague of mine told me how she used to spend hours in lesson planning.

Or so she thought. What she was actually doing was stewing in her own anxiety for hours, then spending a relatively short time completing the lesson plan.

As she became healthier, she realized that the hours of anxiety didn’t “count.” In other words, that time wasn’t actually helping her to accomplish anything.

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It’s a major stressor for lots of inexperienced teachers:

“How do I get kids to calm down in order to start the day’s lesson?”

A pattern of ignoring chaos leads to more of it. In this spirit, experienced teachers will suggest that the teacher not do anything until order is established. They should wait for appropriate behavior if it takes the whole class period.

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