Of all the things that I have learned as a teacher -- a list that stretches well beyond pedagogy and content -- I feel the lesson most needed my my type A personality is this: Don't Count On It.
Don't Count... on the copier working, the network connecting, the wifi transmitting, the activity lasting.... in the end, what you have is you and whatever is in your head.
Often to make that offering be enough, a relationship must be in place with the students. You need them to want to listen to just you, to hope to impress you, and to please you. A common decency of personal interaction has to be at the heart of what you do, or else nothing else to bring to the table will work.
So, I guess I take it back, there is one thing you can count on: the importance of laying a foundation of common courtesy.
