My colleagues and I were tasked with preparing a mini-Pechakucha presentation as a culminating capstone to our Inquiry coursework.  The original format features a 20-slide presentation, each slide receiving 20 seconds of screentime, totaling 400 seconds (6 minutes and 40 seconds).  Our instructor told us to prepare 5 slides, which… actually made the presentation much more challenging than before!  I chose “revisiting my inquiry” as my topic… it was challenging to get everything out within 100 seconds, but I think I managed to say something meaningful within 100 seconds!

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*deep breath* “A breath of fresh air”… this tagline spoke to me, as there’s a nice ring to it.  I wish to create a learning experience for my students that will feel like a breath of fresh air – invigorating and revitalizing; calming and soothing.  My goal was for my teaching practice to reflect this experience.

                A physical object will never change without some force acting upon it.  A tool has no inherent value; we assign a value through designating a purpose.  It’s a piece of wood; it’s a 2×4; it’s a plank – changing its purpose changes its function.  And our teaching practice – pedagogy, classroom management, and so on – is the strongest tool in our arsenal.

But what to use, and when?  On whom does which strategy work best?  Why worry?  “Worry” carries a negative connotation, but it’s a simple matter of timing – “worry” is ‘reflection’ done before the fact.  “Reflecting” encourages us to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize; “worrying” allows us to clarify, focus, and simplify.

Everyone itches, and everyone has their own preferred way of being scratched.  A “best teaching method” can only exist is if the “class” consists of a single child.  But at that point you aren’t “teaching” anymore, you’re “tutoring”.  Add in 29 other children; what may slow one child down may speed another up.  This is good.

“free” by Jon Rawllson, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

You’ve gone through your What Ifs, you’ve hammered out the kinks, and you’ve proactively prepared plans for all possible contingencies.  You’ve envisioned the lead-up, imagined the cold water enveloping you and drowning out the noises buzzing all around you.  So, take a deep breath, clear your mind, and jump.  And don’t forget to take it all in.  You might need it later on.