What’s the difference between information overload and super-important information overload? Glad you asked!

The amount of information is the same: somewhere between a-tiny-bit-more-than-you-can-process-right-now and infinity. In the super-important version, however, each piece of new information comes with an urgent warning or moral implication meant to bump it to the front of the priority line. The result can be a paralyzing cocktail of panic, confusion, and shame.

“Don’t smile until Christmas” is a sound bite of wisdom passed down through generations of teachers.

It’s not really about smiling.

New teachers often receive this advice. It looks great on paper, but it’s usually not worth the risk or the trouble, especially for new teachers. Not everyone agrees with me on this. In fact, this advice gets more push-back than any other advice I share in New Teacher Orientation speeches. (The people who do like it seem to like it a lot!) Nevertheless, here’s why I have persisted in telling new teachers to avoid the making-up-the-rules-with-the-kids activity:

I’ve got two answers to this.

One comes from my own experience.

The other one comes from realizing that my own experience may not match your experience.

You may have heard of something called “long-term planning.” This is sometimes also called “backward planning,” because teachers work backward from what students need to learn by the end of the year and use that to map out their lesson plans for the year. The moment you first learn about long-term planning can feel like an aha! moment—so that’s what you’re supposed to do! The aha moment may then quickly devolve into heart palpitations—how are you supposed to do that?