Seemingly random calls from the office. Fire drills. A new student arriving at your classroom door. Like any profession, being a teacher is full of events that are beyond our control. How we respond to and more importantly, acknowledge these events is what I'd like to talk about in this post. If you're like me, it's easy to let these events, define the moment, get the best of you, dare I say...beat you. I start my day, as I'm sure many of you do, with an image of how I want things to unfold in my classroom. That image comes from, among other things the lessons and materials we prepare, conversations with our colleagues, and our overall teaching pedagogy. What's missing here is acknowledgement of the unforeseen. It's easy to lose sight of the fact that the events I mentioned (and others like them) in the opening of this post (let's call them the unknown) will and do happen. That said, rather than respond we should at least, when imagining how our days will unfold factor in the presence of the unknown. Not doing so projects a false image...that our days are (or in a perfect world, should be) void of things that are out of our control. This may sound commonsensical to many. Remember that the next time a new student arrives at your classroom door.