“That was a disaster”

That has been calmly popping up in my brain the whole way home today. Let me give you context.

I arrived on campus early today and chilled in the car, continuing to listen to my audiobook, before heading in to get things set up for class. Two of my three students are already there. Yay! I unlock the classroom door and see the desks still set up from yesterday. Yay! I start to unpack my bag and get my laptop out and started up. Then I reach for my flash drive with the slides and videos I need for both classes today.

It’s not there.

I look in the pocket I put it in. It’s not there.

Okay. It’s not the end of the world. Yet. I check over the lesson plan for today to see how much I need those files for. Crap. I really need them, especially for the second class.

In that moment I made an important decision: do what I can with the first class and cancel the second class. It was a hard decision to make since the second class is behind where I wanted us to be at this point in the semester. But we wouldn’t have been able to do much without the files.

It has also given me the opportunity to take a more objective look at the plans for the rest of the semester for that course. We’re about halfway through the semester, but we’re not even close to halfway through the course. But this course is unique in that it doesn’t need to have everything covered by the end of the semester. I’m going to use that to my advantage and prioritize my students’ learning of the topic over getting through all the material. Quality is much more important than quantity in this case.

So while today wasn’t exactly a disaster, it does feel that way. It didn’t go at all the way I had planned it to. But I think it’s opened up a new path for the rest of the semester. So while it feels like it, today wasn’t exactly a disaster.