I just finished reading Ben's most recent blog post, and I couldn't agree more. We all need to use our vacations as vacations and quit killing ourselves planning ahead and re-hashing our current situations.
I have been known to use entire "vacations" to write lessons and plan ahead in order to increase my student's learning. I am wiser now that I realize that it is unhealthy and quite insane to spend "vacation" time working rather than relaxing.
So let's celebrate what was good and what we learned from in 2011, and look forward to a happier, healthier and more language friendly 2012.
Happy holidays!
Showing posts with label Stress-management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stress-management. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
"Must be nice to have the summer off."
It's no lie that most teachers get the summer "off". But it's delusional to think that all teachers do in the summer is sip on iced tea and go to the pool. Although I cannot speak for every teacher, this effective teacher tries to take some time for myself and continue to work on school-related things.
Now I realize I may be preaching to the choir, but I feel slighted when people say "Must be nice to have the summer off." I worked hard for this thank you very much. Just in the past two weeks in addition to finishing up my last graduate class of this year (much of which involved curriculum mapping/planning), I've spent at least 4 8-hour days working on bettering my craft for the upcoming school year.
I'm working on aligning my curriculum to the new Colorado Academic Standards and to the new national standards from ACTFL. I've done this through moving towards a standards-based grading system, which is something that has always interested me (although now that I'm writing this I realize I need to actually do research about its effectiveness). I have planned out when assessments need to be and begun writing them. But I need to step up my game on my third year class. I guess I'm stuck as to how to best facilitate language acquisition with them. I hope to get this resolved next week.
Next week I will be in St. Louis for the National TPRS conference. It will be 5 wonderful days of learning, networking and reflection. I hope to learn a lot and to be able to better facilitate language acquisition.
But now, I'm going to read Pyramid Response to Intervention by Buffum, Mattos and Weber. This was a book assigned on my summer reading list by my administration. I'm interested to see what this book has to say, how research-based it is (I look at just about everything with a critical eye), and how I can better serve all of my students.
So to all of the nay-sayers who think teachers have summers off (among other things), I hope you realize that not all of us are parked by the pool sipping iced teas for the entire summer.
Now I realize I may be preaching to the choir, but I feel slighted when people say "Must be nice to have the summer off." I worked hard for this thank you very much. Just in the past two weeks in addition to finishing up my last graduate class of this year (much of which involved curriculum mapping/planning), I've spent at least 4 8-hour days working on bettering my craft for the upcoming school year.
I'm working on aligning my curriculum to the new Colorado Academic Standards and to the new national standards from ACTFL. I've done this through moving towards a standards-based grading system, which is something that has always interested me (although now that I'm writing this I realize I need to actually do research about its effectiveness). I have planned out when assessments need to be and begun writing them. But I need to step up my game on my third year class. I guess I'm stuck as to how to best facilitate language acquisition with them. I hope to get this resolved next week.
Next week I will be in St. Louis for the National TPRS conference. It will be 5 wonderful days of learning, networking and reflection. I hope to learn a lot and to be able to better facilitate language acquisition.
But now, I'm going to read Pyramid Response to Intervention by Buffum, Mattos and Weber. This was a book assigned on my summer reading list by my administration. I'm interested to see what this book has to say, how research-based it is (I look at just about everything with a critical eye), and how I can better serve all of my students.
So to all of the nay-sayers who think teachers have summers off (among other things), I hope you realize that not all of us are parked by the pool sipping iced teas for the entire summer.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Taking care of yourself should be priority #1.
I don't care what anyone else tells you. This is probably one of the most difficult things for me to learn and to live by. But I'm trying. If I do this, I am more relaxed, level headed, a better teacher, a better human, and better able to handle everything that comes at me in and out of the classroom.
I faltered the last two weeks and violated rule #1. I paid for it. My fiancé paid for it. My students paid for it. And I suffered, and so on and so forth. Well after a particularly difficult Saturday, I found myself determined to "take back my life". I went to yoga because that's where I go to become a better person. I went to yoga again today.
And guess what? I had some wonderful PQA with two particularly difficult classes and decent other classes. I actually did successfully provide CI today, which has been something I haven't been able to do in almost two weeks.
And guess what else? The tests didn't get graded. And no one asked about them. The students know it's the end of the year too (imagine that right?).
So yea. Make taking yourself rule #1. It's kind of like when you step in your classroom, and you make your students feel safe they'll play the CI game, but if not, you can forget about it. It's like that. If you take care of yourself, you'll be able to lead the CI game, but if not, you can forget about it.
It's a tough time of year, but this too shall pass.
I faltered the last two weeks and violated rule #1. I paid for it. My fiancé paid for it. My students paid for it. And I suffered, and so on and so forth. Well after a particularly difficult Saturday, I found myself determined to "take back my life". I went to yoga because that's where I go to become a better person. I went to yoga again today.
And guess what? I had some wonderful PQA with two particularly difficult classes and decent other classes. I actually did successfully provide CI today, which has been something I haven't been able to do in almost two weeks.
And guess what else? The tests didn't get graded. And no one asked about them. The students know it's the end of the year too (imagine that right?).
So yea. Make taking yourself rule #1. It's kind of like when you step in your classroom, and you make your students feel safe they'll play the CI game, but if not, you can forget about it. It's like that. If you take care of yourself, you'll be able to lead the CI game, but if not, you can forget about it.
It's a tough time of year, but this too shall pass.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Spring Break 2011 - Reflection
Last night, while going to sleep, I decided to write this post. This post is for the future me to look back and reflect upon how I felt during this time of year. My hope, is that next year I may look back at this post and realize that things are going better then than now. Because with each passing year of teaching, I feel like everything gets better/easier, but at the same time it gets more difficult to continue.
Today marks the end of spring break... that awaited time of year for both students and teachers alike. I have been looking forward to having this time away from school to rejuvenate for the remainder of the year. I've been needing to get away from school and rest for awhile, so that I can sustain the practice of CI with my students. The novelty of TPRS has worn off with me, and the true difficulty of the practice has worn me down. Instead of focusing on the negatives, I need to refocus on what is important. My goals for the rest of the school year is:
It's so easy to get caught up in life in general: what a difference others are making in peoples' lives, what is happening with others, what our contracts are looking like for next year, how much grad homework I have, how much wedding planning is still left undone, what other TPRS teachers are doing in their classrooms, what other non-TPRS teachers are covering in theirs, what extracurricular activities you should be attending, how important it is to eat well, exercise regularly and get enough sleep, etc. that it can get overwhelming.
But we need to remember that this too shall pass. Summer is on it's way, and we cannot speed up or slow down the processes in place in our classrooms. We can choose to be optimistic, focused and effective facilitators of language acquisition, or we can choose to totally freak and start cramming the grammar into students' heads in light of the overwhelming/out of control feeling that we get with the approaching end of another year. I will feel best if I choose to be optimistic, focused and effective. My students will feel best if I choose to be optimistic, focused and effective. My students will acquire more language if I make the same choice.
Now, take a deep breath because you can do this (and NTPRS will be here before you know it!).
Today marks the end of spring break... that awaited time of year for both students and teachers alike. I have been looking forward to having this time away from school to rejuvenate for the remainder of the year. I've been needing to get away from school and rest for awhile, so that I can sustain the practice of CI with my students. The novelty of TPRS has worn off with me, and the true difficulty of the practice has worn me down. Instead of focusing on the negatives, I need to refocus on what is important. My goals for the rest of the school year is:
1) Be optimistic. (It definitely is a choice you must make.)
2) Focus on providing contextual, compelling, comprehensible input SLOWLY.
3) Shelter vocabulary but use grammar freely. (This means keeping story scripts simple.)
4) Use "water wings" as needed; for my sake and the students' sake.
It's so easy to get caught up in life in general: what a difference others are making in peoples' lives, what is happening with others, what our contracts are looking like for next year, how much grad homework I have, how much wedding planning is still left undone, what other TPRS teachers are doing in their classrooms, what other non-TPRS teachers are covering in theirs, what extracurricular activities you should be attending, how important it is to eat well, exercise regularly and get enough sleep, etc. that it can get overwhelming.
But we need to remember that this too shall pass. Summer is on it's way, and we cannot speed up or slow down the processes in place in our classrooms. We can choose to be optimistic, focused and effective facilitators of language acquisition, or we can choose to totally freak and start cramming the grammar into students' heads in light of the overwhelming/out of control feeling that we get with the approaching end of another year. I will feel best if I choose to be optimistic, focused and effective. My students will feel best if I choose to be optimistic, focused and effective. My students will acquire more language if I make the same choice.
Now, take a deep breath because you can do this (and NTPRS will be here before you know it!).
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Formal observations
Although I've been working on my perfectionism A LOT this year, formal observations still get my panties in a bunch. I worry and fret, and usually get sick over nothing. I know I'm a _____ (good? decent? second-year? average? outstanding?) teacher, and I should be ok with that. I know I work my tail off and want the best for my students. I try to work as a team with my colleagues and be a contributing member to teams and committees that I'm involved with. On the outside, I know my job will be ok. On the inside, I worry.
Nevertheless... I think this formal observation, while not my shining classroom moment, was a lot more stress-free than the last. It's possible that I'm just getting used to the beat of the formal observation drum. This is my fourth now... and it helps that I really feel supported by my administrator in the method I'm using this year. Who knows.
Despite all of the stress that comes with a formal observation, my shining moment today was when a student approached me after class and told me she dreampt in Spanish the other night! HOLY MOLY! No way! I was super proud because I think that means she's getting ample comprehensible input in class (which only meets three days a week for 59 minutes!). Go me!
Nevertheless... I think this formal observation, while not my shining classroom moment, was a lot more stress-free than the last. It's possible that I'm just getting used to the beat of the formal observation drum. This is my fourth now... and it helps that I really feel supported by my administrator in the method I'm using this year. Who knows.
Despite all of the stress that comes with a formal observation, my shining moment today was when a student approached me after class and told me she dreampt in Spanish the other night! HOLY MOLY! No way! I was super proud because I think that means she's getting ample comprehensible input in class (which only meets three days a week for 59 minutes!). Go me!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, Fun day
Sundays usually come with some anxiety for me. The past couple have been exceptionally bad. I get anxious because I'm worried/doubtful that I've got the very best story/lesson possible for Monday's classes. Once first and second period on Monday have passed, I'm usually much better. And by the end of the day, I'm confident that I can make it the rest of the week. Why is Sunday so stressful?
This Sunday's remedy came when I finally crafted a story for my third years with the following structures: no digas (don't say/tell), no pongas (don't put), no te pierdas (don't get lost). It's difficult to come up with a story with all three. It was probably pretty silly of me to pick these three commands, but alas I have a story. It involves Bill Gates eating love pills (from another story) and talking with a few of his friends and his mother about his overpowering love of Lady Gaga. He gets better when Steve Jobs gives him a shot of hate. There's a lot of dialogue because we're focusing on commands, so I'm banking on the fact that my students will help me out. I hope they will. January always makes for a tough crowd. Happy Sunday!
This Sunday's remedy came when I finally crafted a story for my third years with the following structures: no digas (don't say/tell), no pongas (don't put), no te pierdas (don't get lost). It's difficult to come up with a story with all three. It was probably pretty silly of me to pick these three commands, but alas I have a story. It involves Bill Gates eating love pills (from another story) and talking with a few of his friends and his mother about his overpowering love of Lady Gaga. He gets better when Steve Jobs gives him a shot of hate. There's a lot of dialogue because we're focusing on commands, so I'm banking on the fact that my students will help me out. I hope they will. January always makes for a tough crowd. Happy Sunday!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
No one will take better care of you, than yourself.
Today is day two of my journey to understand perfectionism in order to not allow it to control my life. Last night, I read a couple of articles, courtesy of my fiance, (here and here) on burnout. I was pretty sure before reading that I was burnt out. After reading the articles, I was absolutely sure and disappointed that some how I had gotten to that point.
A couple of messages rang loud and clear, but the most prominent was the fact that if you don't take care of yourself, no one will. I'm still unsure if it the expectations I try to achieve are actually put on me by superiors or if they are imagined by myself. Either way, I understand how important it is now to make myself a HUGE priority.
Another message that rang clear was that people who are on their way to burnout minimalize their friend circle. They often cut themselves off from the world. That is exactly what I had done during the first semester. It's easy to say "Not right now", but the fact is that we need friends and family as a support system. We cannot do it on our own.
After realizing these things last night, after my too long of a blog post :), I resolved to make this my mission for 2011. I need to get my life balanced, and maintain that balance. So I only did a 1/2 hour of work, then I knitted, drank some sleepytime tea and relaxed. And guess what, today I was a MUCH BETTER teacher.
A couple of messages rang loud and clear, but the most prominent was the fact that if you don't take care of yourself, no one will. I'm still unsure if it the expectations I try to achieve are actually put on me by superiors or if they are imagined by myself. Either way, I understand how important it is now to make myself a HUGE priority.
Another message that rang clear was that people who are on their way to burnout minimalize their friend circle. They often cut themselves off from the world. That is exactly what I had done during the first semester. It's easy to say "Not right now", but the fact is that we need friends and family as a support system. We cannot do it on our own.
After realizing these things last night, after my too long of a blog post :), I resolved to make this my mission for 2011. I need to get my life balanced, and maintain that balance. So I only did a 1/2 hour of work, then I knitted, drank some sleepytime tea and relaxed. And guess what, today I was a MUCH BETTER teacher.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Re: The Great Enemy of Teachers...and Students
Perfectionism has been on my mind a lot this year, and really my whole life in general. The topic has come up recently on TPRSlistserv and on Laurie Clarq's blog. Seeing this topic discussed on these public spots has helped me gain valuable insight into others' experiences with and views on perfectionism.
I've known since at least high school that I was/am a perfectionist. I remember writing my autobiography in 9th grade English class and talking about it in there. My view, however, of perfectionism has really changed this past few years... slowly. During high school I thought that my perfectionism was a real strength. It helped me channel my fears, mishaps, and otherwise negative experiences into positive ones. During my senior year, I remember having an anxiety attack during the spring because I had too much on my plate (president of NHS and soccer team member among other things). After that, I vowed to not to do too much again.
And I did a good job, during undergraduate. I made sure to limit my responsibilities (but to any sane person I'm sure I still did too much) and take time for myself. It was a good time. Some how that slipped away the closer I got to graduation. Possibly because of the pressure (or perceived pressure) of meeting my full potential as a person. During my internship, the idea of teacher burnout became very real. I took the following year off from teaching because of it. The burnout was real, but I didn't know how to slow myself down.
With the beginning of my teaching career, I was a permanent substitute. I worked very hard to balance my work and my life. I worked hard with my first full time teaching position at a very well known high school in Colorado to impress my co-workers, administrators, students and parents (sadly probably in that order too). Although my fiance tells me that he thought I did a better job during that first year than during the previous experiences, I worry that I might just be better at hiding it; or maybe I'm just getting worse at dealing with it. The bottom line is that I don't want this self-inflicted crazy, whirl-wind, judgmental, chaotic, stressful and pressured way of life any more.
It's a big challenge to step back from my life and really evaluate it from a different perspective. Many times I have epiphanies, which seem huge to me, but they're things that my fiance has noticed (and been telling me about) for months/years/etc. It's going to be a long journey back from this insanity of unrealistic expectations, but I know that just like TPRS, the journey will be well worth it for myself, my relationships with others and for my career. Here we go...
I've known since at least high school that I was/am a perfectionist. I remember writing my autobiography in 9th grade English class and talking about it in there. My view, however, of perfectionism has really changed this past few years... slowly. During high school I thought that my perfectionism was a real strength. It helped me channel my fears, mishaps, and otherwise negative experiences into positive ones. During my senior year, I remember having an anxiety attack during the spring because I had too much on my plate (president of NHS and soccer team member among other things). After that, I vowed to not to do too much again.
And I did a good job, during undergraduate. I made sure to limit my responsibilities (but to any sane person I'm sure I still did too much) and take time for myself. It was a good time. Some how that slipped away the closer I got to graduation. Possibly because of the pressure (or perceived pressure) of meeting my full potential as a person. During my internship, the idea of teacher burnout became very real. I took the following year off from teaching because of it. The burnout was real, but I didn't know how to slow myself down.
With the beginning of my teaching career, I was a permanent substitute. I worked very hard to balance my work and my life. I worked hard with my first full time teaching position at a very well known high school in Colorado to impress my co-workers, administrators, students and parents (sadly probably in that order too). Although my fiance tells me that he thought I did a better job during that first year than during the previous experiences, I worry that I might just be better at hiding it; or maybe I'm just getting worse at dealing with it. The bottom line is that I don't want this self-inflicted crazy, whirl-wind, judgmental, chaotic, stressful and pressured way of life any more.
It's a big challenge to step back from my life and really evaluate it from a different perspective. Many times I have epiphanies, which seem huge to me, but they're things that my fiance has noticed (and been telling me about) for months/years/etc. It's going to be a long journey back from this insanity of unrealistic expectations, but I know that just like TPRS, the journey will be well worth it for myself, my relationships with others and for my career. Here we go...
Friday, January 7, 2011
An epiphany about being overwhelmed...
The beginning of a new semester seems to bring a certain amount of overwhelming emotion: anxiety, excitement, fear, worry, tiredness, etc. Now that our first week back is over, I'm feeling much more confident and relaxed.
We started out just doing PQA, to get students interested and to review. After all, PQA is the best and easiest thing ever. The students are interested because we're talking about them all the time, but just using different structures. It's easy to review and introduce using PQA.
I was really starting to feel overwhelmed though as I was looking at my vocab lists from last year. Since this is my first year with TPRS, I started paring down my lists into the 2000 most frequent words in the language. It's really difficult to do because of the fear of my colleagues thinking poorly of me for teaching fewer words. It's overwhelming to look at a list of 500 words and think "I have to teach all of these".
But while driving home, I realized that during last semester, and even at the end I felt wonderful for doing this thing. I know my students knew the "vocab" better than they ever had, and that they had tasted true success in Spanish. I know that it works better for me to teach fewer things, way more in depth than a ton of things not at all.
We started out just doing PQA, to get students interested and to review. After all, PQA is the best and easiest thing ever. The students are interested because we're talking about them all the time, but just using different structures. It's easy to review and introduce using PQA.
I was really starting to feel overwhelmed though as I was looking at my vocab lists from last year. Since this is my first year with TPRS, I started paring down my lists into the 2000 most frequent words in the language. It's really difficult to do because of the fear of my colleagues thinking poorly of me for teaching fewer words. It's overwhelming to look at a list of 500 words and think "I have to teach all of these".
But while driving home, I realized that during last semester, and even at the end I felt wonderful for doing this thing. I know my students knew the "vocab" better than they ever had, and that they had tasted true success in Spanish. I know that it works better for me to teach fewer things, way more in depth than a ton of things not at all.
Monday, October 25, 2010
5 minutes a day...
All the stress and responsibilities I've been juggling the past 10 weeks finally hit me like a wall about a week and a half ago. I got sick, Gus was out of town, and it was a long weekend. That proved to be a hard hurdle to move on from. I'm still trying to move on after getting bogged down.
This weekend, I still was feeling overwhelmed by everything that I have to do. It was a difficult weekend. Gus and I sat down and talked about it, and he suggested finding five minutes a day to reflect on what I did, and what went well each day. When I thought about it, that sounded like a simple way to remind myself that I am doing good each day. I also realized that it would be a way to reflect on here in an albeit short way.
So... my five minutes today:
Let's start with my biggest accomplishment - yesterday, I ran my first 5K race and finished 2 minutes quicker than my "goal" time. I'm still so satisfied about that.
But today, things were rough to get started, but things started to click once first period started. My third year story really developed with student input in 1st and 2nd hour. In all of my third year classes, my students were really focused and on task. It was true learning to be experienced. I really feel like they're going to kick this "subjunctive" in the behind.
I presented my new warm-up/notes sheet page to my first years today, we worked with some descriptions and vocab and started a new story. We'll see how well they did tomorrow.
There. My third years really impressed me today. They were my saving grace. Now to tackle this HUGE first homework assignment for grad school... no exactly looking forward to this, but here's to becoming a master teacher.
This weekend, I still was feeling overwhelmed by everything that I have to do. It was a difficult weekend. Gus and I sat down and talked about it, and he suggested finding five minutes a day to reflect on what I did, and what went well each day. When I thought about it, that sounded like a simple way to remind myself that I am doing good each day. I also realized that it would be a way to reflect on here in an albeit short way.
So... my five minutes today:
Let's start with my biggest accomplishment - yesterday, I ran my first 5K race and finished 2 minutes quicker than my "goal" time. I'm still so satisfied about that.
But today, things were rough to get started, but things started to click once first period started. My third year story really developed with student input in 1st and 2nd hour. In all of my third year classes, my students were really focused and on task. It was true learning to be experienced. I really feel like they're going to kick this "subjunctive" in the behind.
I presented my new warm-up/notes sheet page to my first years today, we worked with some descriptions and vocab and started a new story. We'll see how well they did tomorrow.
There. My third years really impressed me today. They were my saving grace. Now to tackle this HUGE first homework assignment for grad school... no exactly looking forward to this, but here's to becoming a master teacher.
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