Expect the Unexpected

Yep, that's my kid in the Statue of Liberty costume.

Walking in her first Halloween parade.

Completely breaking rank and file.

She's not being disobedient, she's just being her.

For many, her behavior is unexpected.

For me, I'd expect nothing less.

Walk into my classroom and you might see someone...

in tears because a pencil fell on the floor.
crawling around the room like a monkey.
playing out an intense invisible dogfight while someone is trying to talk to them.
saying they think they need to make a poop because their butt feels funny.

To you, the behaviors may be unexpected.
You may think that there needs to be more discipline.
These kids need to behave as they are expected to.

And that's the problem with expectations.
They are subjective.
They give the illusion that we are in control.
When things don't go as planned, we feel like something is wrong.
We feel like we need to fix it.

What if we changed our mindset to expect the unexpected?
If we throw all expectations out the window, things are just the way they are.
Everything just is.

And if we adjust ourselves to be okay with that, then we can enjoy the moment for what it is.
The pencil will get picked up off of the floor.
The crawling monkey will sit back down.
The dogfight will come to an end.
And a poop will be made.

Another alternative is to look in the mirror.
What could I do differently to maximize expected behavior?
This doesn't mean implement another behavior plan.
It doesn't mean get more rigorous with the behavior chart.
No, it's not about controlling others.
It's about controlling yourself.

Because that's all that we have control over.