Chapter six of "Fires in the Bathroom" deals with a subject I've seen a lot of during my field experience. One excellent chart deals with the problem of timing activities while mindful of what's going on outside of school. It gives a time (Such as "After lunch"), a list of things that are good for that time, and a list of things that are bad for that time.
I noticed a huge difference in how students responded to an activity based on when it was taking place. It's important for us as teachers to remember that nothing occurs in a vacuum. School is just one facet in the lives of students, and chances are it's not the most important one for many of them. Teachers have to remember that, rather than us being the boss of the students, the interplay is more complicated than that. They are responsible for doing assignments we give them, but we are responsible for making sure that the assignments will help them learn and not just discourage them. With that in mind, we have to be willing to change our instruction based on what's going on in the course of the day. Rigidity is death in a classroom.
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