Flexibility: to give up or go forward?

I was teaching class yesterday, and I assumed the students would all have their assignments finished and completed.  Well, that expectation did not turn out the way in which I was hoping. Instead of getting mad at them, I decided to give them 7 minutes to get to work , especially since my entire lesson was riding on them having their work.

Once they had some time to pull it together, we had a moment where we discussed what happened.  Since I teach an Integrated Learning Community in which students, specifically freshmen, are supposed to learn the expectations of college, I decided to take some class time to have a teachable moment.   We discussed time management strategies and methods to structure their assignments. We also brainstormed ways they can support themselves and one another.

This experience taught me that I could have become frustrated with my students and canceled class, which wouldn’t have helped anyone, or I could be flexible and make the most of the moment.