Within the day-to-day flow of a classroom, it is great feeling to fall into a nice, consistent rhythm with your class. Students come in, journals, Math class, supervise recess, Social Studies, lunch, afternoon work, dismissal, home-time. Rinse and repeat.

Your class knows what the next move is and flows from one activity to the next. Seamlessly and without effort. BAM! A wrench is thrown in the mix. Assemblies, guest speakers, TOCs, students sick, Pro-D days, and a handful of other unexpecteds suddenly jam up the gears and cogs of the well-oiled machine that is your classroom. The consistency and reliability that your student have come to expect is thrown out the window and they’re plunged into chaos and anarchy. There is only one thing that is going to save this ship from sinking to the bottom of the Pacific with all hands lost: your ability to adapt.

Stuff happens. It is the nature of this profession that change is inevitable and more likely than not, it is right around the corner. This can come in many forms: schedule changes, curriculum alterations, a change in class dynamic, etc. Adaptability is a skill that combats these sudden and often unannounced shifts in your daily routine. Changes like these are frustrating but it is part of the career. Remaining adaptable and flexible is essential in maintaining a safe and comfortable classroom environment. The task lies in transfiguring this chaos into an organized chaos and making order out of the unexpected (or at least making it seem that way), so your students can feel as if the ship is headed on its intended course.

Last Friday, I had the privilege to teach a full-day of classes as my SA was out sick and the TOC was unsure of the plan in place for the day. Only 5 days into my short-practicum, a storm had hit but I had little choice but to take the class by by the helm and steer us to what I hoped was dry land. Throughout this voyage, I relied on the greatest resource I had at my disposal: the students. If I was unsure of a procedure; the students knew. If the schedule was wrong; the students knew what to do next. They were a tremendous aid to me and by 3:00 we had made it ashore. Quizzes done, handball played, projects started, agendas signed. However, without adapting, recognizing how we could achieve our objectives given the circumstances, and organizing a potentially chaotic situation, the class and myself would’ve been lost.

Something that has also become apparent to me over the past few weeks is how the ability to adapt is so vital in being able to handle the varying needs of your students. If you’re not able to perceive and then alter your practice to fit the learning styles of your students, then your doing them a great disservice. You are going to have a smorgasbord of issues, difficulties, styles, and approaches your students are bringing to the classroom Creating an interactive, engaging, and functional approach to a school year is a great feat, but adapting and re-applying it in future years is what will make such a plan stand the test of time. In my current classroom, around 50% students on adapted or modified programs and that right there shows how diverse the learning needs of your students are. Going into each year with the same mindset, same programs, or same approaches isn’t sufficient. Each student and each new class deserves the best and that best isn’t a copy and paste.

I like analogies and quotes that belong on Pinterest so I will end with the following:

“If a ship is approaching a reef and the captain refuses to change course, what do you think will happen?”