Lesson #19:

Lesson #19: Exhaustion Doth Not Beget Creativity Nor Productivity

So...I'm returning to teaching. I am excited to be back in the classroom but there is one little thing I forgot about...

The beginning of school is EXHAUSTING!!!

There are a lot of reasons why it is exhausting. I may happen to be a little more exhausted than most this time around.

Here's why...

Setting up a classroom is PHYSICALLY exhausting. There are tables to be moved, cabinets to set up, things to hang from the ceiling, boxes to unload from your car, boxes to reload back to your car. It would be wonderful to have some assistance that first week moving in.

Then there is the mental exhaustion, which I think is draining me more than anything.

I am returning to school after be gone for two years. Not only gone from teaching but gone from this town and state and school. Everyday I've been up at school to do stuff in my classroom, I've found myself seeing someone I haven't seen for two years so I have to play catch up. Then I go back into my classroom and stare at all that has to be done. Then I leave and walk around and talk to some people. Then I come back and fix the border that I had already put up because I didn't like it. Then I leave. Then I stare.

I also have never taught this grade level and I have never been departmentalized (meaning I only teach Math and Science and my classrooms rotate). I don't really know what to set up so my time in the classroom has been slightly unproductive. There are also rules about where things have to go, what things can be seen or not seen, to the left or right of the dry erase board, what tools can be used and which can not (tape is OUT!).

I have so many ideas when I sit at home and think about them but when I get to school I look around and just want to hide all my things in the cabinets and come back another day when I feel more inspired.

EXHAUSTED!

Another reason I am exhausted is my commute.

So, I went back to teach at the school I had been at before because I really loved all the people. They are really friendly and it gives me a sense of camaraderie. Plus I started teaching at this school so it is familiar.

BUT it is a looong way from the neighborhood my husband and I live in. We also like where we live and don't want to move near this school. The commute on a good day is now 45 minutes but in traffic it is close to an hour. And it's not a pretty commute. It is a slam on your breaks, or haul A#$, or close your eyes and cross your fingers you don't die because you have to cross 7 lanes of highway traffic to get to your exit and that's just how it is in Houston, Texas because when the speed limit says 65 it means go 85 and that'll keep you moving with the flow of traffic. Seriously. I got so used to those Pittsburgher drivers who are so slow that now I'm totally out of my element. So by the time I get up to the school I am already frazzled, my nerves are SHOT and I'm ready to go home. So yeah, that part has been exhausting too.

And finally, I am exhausted because I am, by nature, an introvert. That doesn't mean I don't like people, or I am shy, or that I get embarrassed easily (talk to my husband about that...he wishes I got embarrassed more easily). It mostly means that too much social overload can wear me out and I need space and time to rest myself alone to get my energy back. Some people don't understand what being an introvert truly means and I remember growing up falsely claiming that I was NOT one because, for some reason, in our country it is given a bad rap. Like, "Ew, you're an introvert. I'm sorry." It really just gives way to greater introspection and a different way of achieving productivity (I prefer to do work alone then share it with others and collaborate that way rather than all talking and working simultaneously as a group).

But this is a whole other blog topic....the main point here is that I am talking all day long with people and, though I love them all, at the end of the day, with my mind in a million places and physically BEAT from moving and rearranging and decorating and organizing and laminating and copying and writing and hooking up computers and...and...and...well I'm just so tired. And then I have to make my looooong commute back home. Wah wah wah.

(Cue the tiny violin)

All of this is to say that I. AM. TIRED!!!

And all the ideas I have are completely useless when you are so freaking tired.

So what can you do to overcome this???

Today I am taking a day off. I am trying not to plan anything. I'm just resting my mind and hoping that I can really crank it out next week.

Another thing I can do is take one day at a time. Think about getting things ready for Meet the Teacher. Then after that get ready for the First Day. Then start thinking about the following weeks. I know that's not what you want to be doing ideally (ideally you should not be planning day by day and trying to keep your head above water that way...ideally you should be one step ahead, ready and prepared). But that's really just how it's going to be until I get my feet wet again.

One step at a time.

by Iain Macarthur

 "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lesson #18:

Lesson #18:Make Time to Play

 

I was going to make this blog post about my recent professional development coursework which was heavily focused on Smartboard technology, amongst other techie type teacher solutions. 

But then I started thinking (and you know that's never safe...)

So much of our education system is focused on success, success, success at any rate. And I totally agree in working towards success...how would I survive as a teacher if I didn't want that as an end goal? But there is an issue when the drive towards a numeric goal -say, a test score - overrides the importance of developing the person that the student is to become.

I write this now, having been through numerous courses over the past couple of days, that all made me feel a bit nervous about the numbers. Numbers that my students needed to meet,  numbers that the state requires of us, number of hours for this and that, numbers, numbers, numbers! I swear to you, my anxiety as school approaches has skyrocketed! And I'm the teacher! Think about being a student and having those pressures to perform put on you.

Fortunately there have also been many staff development opportunities that have emphasized the importance of a more holistic approach to education. I've really latched on to these training sessions and it has made me feel a bit better. My most important job in these first few weeks of school should be to create an environment that feels safe and nurturing and where the students feel valued and respected.

And where we can play.

I've noticed within myself that I do many things better when there is an element of play involved. Like when I joined a bootcamp over the summer, the days that I found myself working the hardest were days in which the instructor had us play some sort of game (usually tag related). I'm all about playing tag! (And, if you are a teacher or parent or ever have worked with kids, you know as well that tag is the ultimate game at recess. Hands down.)

So it got me thinking about how I can make difficult things (like boring math and science) into games that can be played. Let's play our way through life! Why not!

I'm not the only one focusing a lot on the benefits of play and games. I recently watched a fascinating TED Talks lecture by Jane McGonigal that discussed overcoming a difficult ordeal through the use of gaming.

It seems that creating an element of play can really bring on beneficial changes, some of them we probably never expected.

So, some ways in which I have thought about bringing play into my classroom include:

1. Mystery Hall Walker Reward - As a game- who am I watching the whole time and who gets the prize at the end? Hall walking manners are either a teacher's greatest achievement or worst nightmare. Her class is there on display for everyone to see and her classroom management skills are summed up in the entirety of those 10 minutes it takes to walk her class from the room to the cafeteria. Unfair? Yes. Reason to incentivize? Most definitely.

2. Classroom Bingo -A Bingo Board for the class is created. At the end of each day (or class period) if the class has had no more than 3 verbal warnings for staying on task, keeping voices off, good behavior, etc then they can fill in a Bingo square. As soon as they get Bingo we can have a reward of their choice which has been predetermined - pizza party, extra recess, crazy sock day, WHATEVER those crazy little minds think up.

3. Finishing a task = Dance Party Break - A good student can come up to pick which dance party break we'd like to do for 3-4 minutes if we've made it through a task.

4. Special Chair Incentive - Can be an attendance award, bringing in homework award, bringing in signed permission slip award...may end up changing each week. Basically I will have a cool looking chair- paint, glitter, crazy, tacky stuff- and the person who reaches this goal I set will get to sit in it for a whole day. Kids dig this sort of stuff. Big time. They're so funny.

5. Silent Finger Math - While waiting in the hall I can sign out addition or subtraction problems, they hold up the answers on their fingers. The first one with their fingers up with the right answer (while remaining silent) gets picked to come up and make the next math problem. I haven't actually tried this one, I kind of just thought of it right now. I am always looking for games that have an element of QUIET since there are so many times when the kids have to be quiet and it feels like torture having to tell them over and over again to USE INSIDE VOICES or PUT A BUBBLE IN THEIR MOUTH. If I were a kid I'd be sick of that too.

I'm sure there are many more elements of play that can be added to the school day, or just everyday life!

Care to share? I'm all ears!

Photo By: HeadOvMetal

"It is a happy talent to know how to play". - Ralph Waldo Emerson