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Jul 23, 2026
Micro-Decisions
Micro-Decisions
00:00
01:28
Transcript
0:00
Hello. Welcome back to The Distilled Staffroom. This week, micro decisions. The tiny split-second calls you make all lesson about whether to carry on regardless or actually change course.
0:12
Here's the moment I want you to think about. Fifteen minutes into an explanation, three slides still to go, and you see that half the class have quietly left the building in their heads.
0:23
The sensible move is to stop, check for understanding, adapt.
0:27
But the lesson's timed, the department's agreed the pacing for this unit, and stopping rather gives the game away to anyone wandering past the door, at least, that the lesson isn't quite landing.
0:39
Honest take, the planning was never the problem. The problem is mistaking the lesson plan for the job itself, rather than a polite suggestion you're allowed to abandon.
0:49
A finished set of PowerPoint slides isn't evidence that teaching happened. It's evidence you got through the content, which to be fair, is not nothing, but it isn't the same thing as learning.
1:00
The teachers who get good at this aren't the ones with the tidier slide decks and polished resources. They're the ones who notice and respond sooner and trust that over whatever the clock's telling them.
1:12
So the question for the week, think of a lesson this term where you plowed on instead of stopping to check in.
1:17
What actually made you keep going if you're honest with yourself, and would you make the same call again with the benefit of hindsight? Drop your answer in the comments below this post.
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