Milking a phrase is of course scary, but only at first. Really, it is so much fun, and largely because you are released from having to know what it going to happen next. Now that is NTCI and when you first do it in class, you feel like something great just happened.
Maybe in those moments, when you learn to let the story develop in those moments of milking, when you learn to trust that the story can happen without you worrying so much about it, you could give the class a five minute time out and dash over to your computer and tell us here in the PLC in the nearest comment field every detail of what happened. By sharing how letting go of the story (this has been addressed ad infinitum here on the PLC for many years) creates better stories, we can help each other grow into more spontaneous teachers. Those milking moments really help it happen.
Currently many of us are still just tapping the outside protective wall of a way of teaching that is full of potential joy. Where does that joy happen? It happens where all joyfulness happens and where joy actually lives, in our hearts, and not in our minds in “how much we can teach them”, and this joy can be ours in class just by always being aware of each of those moments that you can milk.
