In the moment

In general, I'm a planner. I'm not a control freak about it and I'm not afraid of spontaneity - I just have a mind that benefits from a basic structure to keep me on task (or, in some instances, to riff off of.)

So as a teacher I plan, and I like to make an agenda for class. For instance, tomorrow we'll do a free write ("Write a brief history of a made-up war between made up nations, as it might appear in an outdated and slightly offensive high school history textbook") followed by a yarn discussion on cultural narratives of violence and nonviolence. I'll no doubt spend time tonight going over the readings I assigned (excerpts from Kurlansky's Nonviolence and an essay by Starhawk) and making notes on key points I want to emphasize and make sure are understood.

And then, tomorrow, undoubtedly something magical will happen. It happens all the time. I'll be struck by some random, last minute (literally) inspiration to change my plan. Suddenly it will make sense to change order, or do a different activity, to let a discussion go long, or to have my amazing TA perform Dispatch's The General at some other key but unplanned time in the flow of the class. The results will be phenomenal - and the inspiration would never have struck had I not done the planning.

What is it Parker Palmer says - methods are what we use until the real teacher arrives?

This kind of in-the-moment teacher inspiration is relatively new to me, though I've witnessed other facilitators work with it many times over the years. I've been congratulating myself these past three semesters that I've been able to stay open to it and to trust it. I think it might be a mark of maturity, at least for me.

There's also an element of trust, and of giving up control - to inspiration, to my students, to our shared organic experience of teaching and learning.

And a reminder that planning goes hand in hand with inspiration (and trust) is a probably a good life lesson.