On Teaching: "Pace"

I must confess that I have rarely thought about the importance of pace in my teaching. I guess I'm like a runner who just goes out each day and starts running, with little or no thought given as to how fast to run. I make careful lesson plans for each class, and I think I'm generally a hard-working teacher, but, as far as pace goes, I just sort of blindly push ahead. Each day's pace is about the same. I set out my plans, wait for the starting gun, and then run for the finish line. What would it mean for a teacher to "pace" himself, and to pace his students? Well, it certainly would mean taking a long-range view of the teaching now and then -- looking ahead on the road of days and weeks to see what the "course" looks like. (It's interesting that we call English a "course", as if it is, indeed, a race of some sort.) If I think of a single week as a separate "race", it might mean starting the week slowly, so that we can end the week on a fast-paced, energetic note. Thinking about the entire year as one long endurance race, it might mean planning week-long "breaks", when we slow the pace and refresh our energies. I could even think of each day as a race the students run, in which my 47- minute class is simply one stage. Thinking of it this way, I would plan for a relaxing, reenergizing, slower pace for at least a few minutes of the class, knowing that the kids are in the middle of an all day race. I might whisper to myself now and then: "Pace yourself, Ham -- and pace these hard-running kids."