Zen and power

The school had another power outage yesterday. That ended up being kind of cool, actually, because I turned it into a lesson about power. What is power? Who has it? How do you take it? I put them in groups and asked each group to come up with a definition. One group simply drew a Swastika. Smart. That's power on a whole lot of levels.

We're going to read some related stories today and turn it into a discussion about Nazis and the power the people gave Hitler, eventually leading us to Elie Weisel's Night. Sometimes the most unexpected events lead to the best lesson plans as long as you don't freak out.

I kind of like that my school is an adventure every day. You never know when something exciting is going to happen, so you have to be able to go with the flow. Teachers who can't handle surprises don't last long. Still, I am a little more zen than most teachers. Most teachers do a lot of bitching about stuff that just doesn't matter in the long run. I'm big on picking my battles. In the end I have more power that way because I'm so well respected that I get what I want when I do put my foot down. Maybe power is knowing when to keep your mouth shut.