Too Much Knowledge Can Be a Bad Thing

Overwhelmed. If there was one word to describe myself in terms of planning for instruction that would be it. When I first began teaching in 1996, I was six years out of my teacher education program and four years post-masters. In between I subbed and waited tables. Pretty far removed from where I thought I would be. In fact, when I got the call to come teach, I was living 13 hours away waiting tables at a Cajun restaurant. It was what I had been waiting for, so I packed my car and drove back to Florida--and started teaching. My teaching toolbox at that time was pretty small. I think I did a good job, but I only had so many good strategies to pull from. Now, nearly two decades and a PhD later, my toolbox is essentially the size of a garage. I have TONS of really, really good tools from a ton of really, really smart folks (Jago, Beers, Blau, Probst, Smagorinsky, Milner, etc.). It is almost crippling because I want to use ALL of what I know, and that is simply impossible. Every day a war wages in my mind about whose ideas to use. In thinking too much and too long maybe I am just missing out on the obvious. My fear is that this back and forth and indecision is hindering rather than helping my students . . .