Let it Flow, Let it Flow, Let it Flow

When I began to student teach, and throughout that year in the classroom, there were days (a few in a row, if I was lucky) when things would click, when all the planning and strategizing, thinking and rethinking I had done would feel natural, effortless. "The Flow", I called it. Some days it was there: I was on fire, in the zone, running on all cylinders. Other days, not so much, if at all. I thought it an awesome happenstance, a rarity, revered its sacred powers as one would a beloved deity; it was always inches out of reach, recognizable, omnipresent, but beyond comprehension and impossible to manufacture. This phenomenon is what I believe is meant by Momentum.

"Momentum," as is described, "is maintaining a steady sense of movement throughout lessons and throughout the day. Effective classroom managers conduct their lessons at a brisk pace, providing a continuous academic signal for students to focus upon." So this is it! I thought as I read these words. The Flow unveiled.  Here was the key to unlocking that which I thought purely divine. In these lines I see myself, my classroom, materialize, take shape at both ends of the spectrum; I think back to those lessons that flowed, and to those that stuttered and stopped; I laugh at my overdwelling, the pompous folderol spouted to the benefit of no one save myself; and I marvel at the times I was lucky enough to pull it off.

But marvel will I no more, for this explicit account, this break down of Momentum in the classroom has given me a way to more clearly define the velocity, the speed and direction, of each lesson, activity, and assessment. No longer must I bet the odds, pray that chance is that day on my side, or enter uncertain of how each class will go. These slow downs in the classroom have made themselves to me more visible, so too have the fragmentations, the lengthy directions, unnecessary steps, and other procedures that oppose the general movement of the lesson. On the other hand, I am now aware of those practices which have indeed been working. Rather, I knew that they worked, but now understand why and for what purpose. I find myself already working to trim the fat and build muscle, so to speak, when it comes to thinking through and executing each lesson, and I look forward to starting this new semester with Momentum...and keeping it.

-James