Words to Survive By

Funny, I was JUST about to post my feelings about my day in light of the fabulous Mr. Levine's ruminations. I, too, read my Google horoscope daily, usually as my "I just walked into work and need a coffee-drinking-friendly soothing activity". It has long formed the bridge to the last activity before I leave the apartment, where I lean against the kitchen counter eating something and flip through some portion of the Sunday paper (kept on the kitchen table all week for this express purpose).

This morning, as Deborah noted, my horoscope advised me against shaking up the routine. I have four periods of Intro to Law, three with gen ed (and pretty high-performing) freshmen, and one with a group of self-contained sophomores. I have taken to referring to them as semi-contained, as the major issue in the class is a desperate need for meditation skills or something other than Juan's ongoing rap performance and Stardasia's loud and frequent verbal enforcement of the rules (Motherfucker, do NOT TALK TO ME! I'm doing THE DO NOW!). I do like them, and actually they are nowhere near the nightmare that a self-contained class can be, but I've decided that the way that I tend teach pretty much means I can't run the same coursework with them as I do with the freshmen. In addition to the behavioral issues, there are some hardcore literacy problems at play. Solution? Start that class working on Project Citizen. Which has workbooks and a practical application, life lessons, good stuff all around.

What does this have to do with Ricky baby? Good question.

I rolled into work this morning with every intention of kicking off the work on PC during my fourth period. I didn't have an exact PLAN, per se, but am completely frustrated by trying to get anything resembling classwork out of this group, even though all of my other classes are whizzing through and doing that night's homework during class (ahead of time) more often than not. Fortunately, I read Rick's advice for today:

You might want to shake things up a bit today, but change isn't always the best idea, especially if everything is working. It's one thing to try doing a work task in a new way because you are seeking more effective and efficient methods. But doing it differently just because you are bored may not be the best strategy for the day. Don't try to fix what isn't broken.

I decided to just go ahead and get into the Intro to Law lesson on natural law with them. Why not? I already had the presentation. Rick said not to change things just for the sake of changing things. I don't have the workbooks yet... I can avoid catastrophe!

And thank goodness. Because they were in RARE form. And when that happens, the best thing in the world is a couple of slides of notes for them to copy. Saved again by Mr. Levine. I can't imagine what that class would have been like if I'd tried to change it up today!