By Derrick Brown (follow on Twitter @dbrowndbrown)
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Steady-State Approaches (844 Words)
By Derrick Brown (Join Our Mailing List!)
A “steady state” is not stillness.
It is balance ... a system’s ability to hold its shape even while everything
inside it keeps moving.
It is what happens when opposing changes cancel each other just enough to
maintain stability.
Physicists describe it as a condition where variables remain constant over
time.
I describe it as peace ... the feeling that all will be well, even when it is
not.
After yesterday’s turbulence, today felt like a return to that equilibrium.
I walked in without dread ... without bravado ... just rhythm.
The triangle congruence lesson was waiting ... one of my favorites.
It is a “calculator-free”, distraction-free exercise that demands thinking,
discipline, and pattern recognition.
It is geometry’s version of a cleansing breath.
You can prove that two triangles are congruent by identifying three pairs of
corresponding sides and/or angles ... not all six corresponding pairs.
Three truths are enough.
Grace, logic, and perseverance are enough.
Today, the room matched that simplicity.
My classes became “carbon copies,” and I was the steady variable holding them
together.
DW and NJ in 1B, DA and NH in 2B, and SW and AS in 3B all struggled honestly,
corrected their work, and smiled at discovery.
In each of their eyes I saw small calibrations ... little shifts toward
balance.
Even MM1 and MM2, whose seating change last week felt like friction, began to
orbit each other in productive ways.
That is a steady state too ... not harmony without conflict ... but coexistence
within tension.
Teaching often moves like thermodynamics … energy transferred, never
destroyed.
After “babysitting” days ... the ones filled with boundary pushing,
passive-aggressive bathroom passes, and performative disrespect ... I go
home depleted.
I “walk” long, “write” long, breathe deep … and wait for equilibrium to return.
Some days, the school’s chaos seeps into my bones … the only way to recover is
to let motion turn into meditation.
Walking converts noise into rhythm.
Writing converts exhaustion into meaning.
Peace is never spontaneous … it is a product of work.
It is an experiment I rerun daily.
This morning, EI ... the teacher from The Classroom Across the Hall ... stopped
by.
She told me she had read Lizard
Liability and loved it.
Her words hit like sunlight through blinds.
We rarely receive “goodwill visits” in my room … adults tend to appear only to
supervise ... not to support.
So that brief affirmation meant more than she might ever know.
It was proof that my thought leadership ... my voice ... can
resonate beyond the containment zone of my classroom.
Her visit reminded me that “steady state” does not mean isolation … it means
connection without collision.
Two classrooms … two orbits … one hallway.
I often say that patience is not a virtue … it is a destination.
And the road toward patience is “crooked” ... paved with pathways of
tension, turbulence, truth … and peace.
Teaching is no different.
When my patience runs thin, I have to remember that I am the common denominator
in all my classes.
Their instability often mirrors my own.
When I center myself, the system stabilizes.
When I falter, the system amplifies chaos.
I have learned that my peace is not the absence of conflict … it is the
presence of discipline.
It is the quiet decision to show up again, to balance the equations that never
seem to balance themselves.
It is understanding that I cannot control every variable ... only my own
reaction.
When I respond differently … I teach differently.
When I believe better things can happen, they often do ... or maybe
they have always been happening ... and I finally notice.
The triangle congruence lesson becomes a metaphor for life.
To prove congruence, students must identify corresponding sides and angles ... proof
of shared identity … despite transformation.
Likewise, we prove our own congruence with peace by matching our faith to our
doubt … our hope to our humility … our strength to our vulnerability.
“Help my unbelief” balances “I believe.”
That is a steady state.
As the day ended, I realized I was not searching for new answers anymore.
I was maintaining equilibrium.
I was teaching ... and being taught ... how to live in
tension without being defined by it.
To watch understanding manifest after self-honesty, correction, adjustment, and
"one more try" ... was a small miracle ... one repeated dozens of
times across three classes.
It was not dramatic.
It was not cinematic.
It was steady.
And that steadiness felt holy.
So, when the final bell rang, I did not pack up in a hurry.
I stood at the front of the room, looking at the diagrams still glowing on the
ViewSonic, and thought …
This is what healing looks like in real time ... not perfection … not
escape … but balance.
Opposing forces ... fatigue and faith … noise and stillness … despair and
joy ... canceling each other just enough for me to stand here and teach
again tomorrow.
That is my steady state.
Selah.
(The "Follow The Leader (changED - Volume 2)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
(The "changED (Volume 1)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
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I am a “standup storyteller.”
I fuse rap, spoken word (poetry), oration (traditional public speaking), singing, and teaching into messages of hope, healing, and change that I write, direct, and produce to help people who help people.
Everything must change - and stay changED.
Tradition begins and ends with change.
Change begins with me and the renewing of my mind ... then continues through efforts to effect small-group discipleship (equipping others to equip others) with audiences that respect and embrace mentoring, mediation, and problem solving as tools of change.
I am the product of my mentoring relationships, peacemaking (and peacekeeping), and problem-solving ability.
My education began when I finished school.
After school, I enrolled in a lifelong curriculum that includes classes in ministry, entrepreneurship, stewardship, literacy, numeracy, language, self-identity, self-expression, and analysis / synthesis.
My projects execute a ministry that has evolved from wisdom earned through lessons learned.
I want to share this wisdom to build teams of "triple threat" fellows - mentors, mediators, and problem solvers.
We will collaborate in simple, powerful ways that allow us to help people who help people.
I now know that power is work done efficiently (with wise and skillful use of resources, interests, communication, and expertise).
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