Just Go with the Flow

     I had thought that all the craziness and unpredictability of last week was just because it was the first meeting. But I learned today that craziness is an inevitable part of life. And sometimes, all you can do is just go with the flow.

    Ms. Nguyen announced this morning that we would be meeting in the student lounge.

    Except as we started to set up, we realized that we didn't have a projector. So to avoid the hassle of moving the projector, we moved the people!

    In Ms. Nguyen's room, the laptop decided to take its sweet time logging me in and loading my slides. So I decided to teach the introduction game from memory, and I only forgot one rule. Go me!

    Once the slides finally finished loading the game had officially died, we started the lesson on introductory conversations. The nice thing about sign language is that it's often intuitive. Consequently, we flew through a lot of the signs like HI, BYE, YOU, and ME. Others took a bit longer but it actually took about half the time that I had planned. That's okay, I thought, because I know the next part is going to take a while.

    I decided to ask people what signs they wanted to learn on the topic. I had planned it thinking that, Oh, I know! I'll get them engaged! I ask for their input, they get to choose what they learn, I don't have to make a billion slides, they'll spend a bunch of time exploring the topic for themselves, it's a win-win-win-win!

    I thought wrong. As the slide changed and displayed the words, "Are there any other introductory signs you want to learn?" in big white letters, I turned around, ready to see a dozen hands raised. What did I actually see? No. Hands. At. All. After a few excruciating moments, some people came up with a few words, yet it all took a grand total of 5 minutes. 

    With half an hour and only the exit game left, I still had no idea what to fill the time with.

    "Julianne?" said a voice from behind me, "are we doing another Kahoot?".

    "I didn't make one, but I can try to find one," I replied.

    "Well, what about the one from last week? The one with the letters and numbers."

    And just like that, the meeting was saved.

    While letting everyone try the exit activity, I set up the Kahoot. And this time, I managed to stop the game before it completely died.

    So for the last 20 minutes, we did the same Kahoot. And for the last 20 minutes, we enjoyed the same laughs. 

    Now, that might not sound like a very successful meeting, and I definitely didn't think so at the time. Yet as I got home and check my email, I saw one from Ms. Nguyen.

    "You did a great job today," it read, "and Ms. Marcella heard from some students who came to the library after the meeting today that said it was really good."

    Going with the flow had really worked! I think we often judge our performance based on how closely we were able to follow our "perfect" plans. But today, I think success came from being able to adapt and change the plan to suit the situation.

    Now, I'm not saying that you should throw Winston Churchill's, "fail to plan...planning to fail" out the window. Plans are great as a guideline for what you should be aiming for, but you should always be ready for when the predictable "change of plans" comes knocking.