What can you do when you think a lesson is going to fall flat, but there’s (seemingly) nothing you can do to fix it? To say it another way, what can you do when you’re designing a duck? A lame little duck. I was planning a lesson on Sunday night that, despite thoughtfulness and careful research, was not working. I knew it was going to flounder. I couldn’t seem to pull it together, to wrap it up. I wanted it to fit more neatly within our school calendar. I wanted to use different resources than what I had available. I wanted it to connect better with what we had studied, all for the sake of my students. But my hopes weren’t enough to save the lesson plan.
After spending hours working on this one confounding lesson, my thoughtful wife encouraged me to let it rest and stick with what I had planned. It’s what I needed, but it’s not what I wanted. What’s more, a disappointment sat with me the rest of the night and I had a hard time letting it go. I was unsatisfied with my work.
While I wish it had all worked itself out—that I had a great insight or changed plans—it didn’t. The lesson, as expected, was not well received. My lame duck had died. Honestly, I’m worried that this is part of what it means to be a teacher. I say that, in part, because I think being a teacher is innately tied to being a person. Our disappointment and other emotions—in addition to the more positive, personal connections we have with our students, the highs, and so on—are played out daily in the countless ways we interact with others. It seems that, sometimes, disappointment is a part of living generatively, a consequence of creating for and caring for others. It’s part of giving yourself away.
It seems that, sometimes, disappointment is a part of living generatively, a consequence of creating for and caring for others.
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Am I wrong in that analysis? If not, what do you find encouraging in the midst of these challenges? Do you have a secret solution for all of your lesson planning woes? What do you do when you know a lesson doesn’t have the punch it needs to connect with your students?
Write with a Point 