Schedules

Last week (or was it the week before?) was the final week of testing at my school. Never before had the reality of the week's rythym been more obvious than during these two weeks of inconsistency. Students need a sense of safety, and although they will never admit it, this safety comes from a sense of routine. Students need to count on something, so it might as well be a schedule, even if what happens in between is different from day to day. But with the testing schedule, everything was complete chaos. Every day was like a Monday, with me trying to get the students to focus. Eventually things began to even out, but then the testing schedule was replaced by "old reliable" - 50 minutes, five days a week. The students revolted! I think they had grown accustomed to not seeing me every day. For a student teacher, who has to work hard to motivate and engage students, a messed up schedule is no fun because suddenly, all the small problems begin to become much more obvious. And I've spent the last two weeks trying to get over it.