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• Elona Hartjes, MEd (Candidate), Ontario Certified Teacher

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“So much of our frustrations and stress arise from incongruity- incongruity between what we think, feel or say is important and how we actually spend our time” (Cirocco, p. 52)

Isn’t that the truth.   I don’t know about you, but in my teaching practice I seem to be spending more and  more time doing what I think isn’t important and less and less time doing what I think is important. That’s so frustrating.  I don’t want my teaching practice to be distracted by the frustrations of having to do things that I don’t value, so I plan to find a way to match my values to more of my actions in my teaching practice.

I have to be realistic. There’ll be forms I have to complete, meetings I’ll have to attend, and PD sessions that aren’t optional. Oh yes, there’ll be hall supervisions I can’t escape . But, I think I can find  a way to spend most of my time doing what  I actually think, feel and say is important.

The first thing I have to do is clarify what I value as a teacher and decide how these values can inform my teaching practice so that I’m not stressed and frustrated. Now, I remember doing value clarification exercises years ago when I was a newbie teacher or more likely during teacher training, but I haven’t really sat down and made a list of what I value as a teacher  in a long, long time. I think I know, but maybe there’ll be surprises.  Maybe I can’t walk my talk in the classroom anymore because of all the changes and the directives from the-powers-that- be . What do I do then? Any ideas?

Cirocco’s book Take the Step: The Bridge Will Be There offers guidance on how you can eliminate or more realistically reduce the incongruity between what you say you believe and what you do.  I find it ironic just as I was thinking about refining my teaching practice to avoid frustration and stress as much as possible, I find a book just lying on a table at my local bookstore that I can use to help me do this. I’m just reading the part near the beginning of the book  about choosing core values and using them to create a compass to guide your actions.

Usually, there’s more than one way to do anything.  Have you found a way to avoid frustration and stress at work that allows you to remain true to your values? I’d love to know if you have or are in the process of finding a way that lets you walk your talk at work.

Resource:

Cirocco, Grace. (2001) Take the Step: The Bridge Will Be There. Toronto. On: HarperCollins Publishers LTD.

Photo by oddstock

Sometimes we can get the wrong idea about what it takes to successfully teach kids who are academically at-risk.  You don’t have to be a superhero like Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers. You just have to be “good enough”. I’ll explain what I mean by “good enough” in a minute.

For those of you who have seen the movie Freedom Writers, you’ll know what I mean when I say Erin, the teacher in the movie, is a superhero.   For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, I’ve embedded a trailer here so you can have a better idea of what I’m talking about.

I mean no disrespect to Erin Gruwell, the teacher Freedom Writers is based on. What she did with her students was truly extraordinary. I’m in awe of her. But I think because she’s a superhero, teachers who watch the movie might get the mistaken notion you have to have super-teacher powers to teach students who are academically at-risk. You don’t. You don’t have to be a super-teacher. You only have to be “good enough”.

When I say teachers of students who are academically at-risk don’t have to be superheros they only have to be “good enough”, I don’t mean they can be mediocre. Far from it.  Let me explain what  I  mean by “good enough” teachers.  ”Good enough” teachers

• • have good  emotional intelligence
  • establish inviting student centered classrooms;
  • have excellent listening skills;
  • willingly treat their students with respect and demand the same from their students ;
  • have expertise in the teaching subject;
  • can differentiate teaching, assessment and evaluation strategies to suit students;
  • help students be successful using the students’ strengths;
  • are firm but fair;
  • are creative;
  • are life-long learners;
  • are flexible;
  • are skilled at teaching and assessment;
  • realize and accept they’re not perfect;
  • realize tomorrow is another day and another opportunity to get it right.

 

“Good enough” teachers realize it’s not their job to “fix” students who are academically at-risk; it’s their  job to help students realize better choices will lead to better outcomes and help them develop their critical thinking skills so they can make better choices.

Erin Gruwell did all this and more. She is a superhero who teaches, but we can be just “good enough” and still be successful at teaching students who are academically at-risk. We don’t need to be superheros ; we can just be humans who teach. I want teachers to realize that.

If you’ve been teaching academically at-risk students, what do you think it takes. How would you define “good enough”?

It’s getting near the end of the semester, and I feel as if I’m being buried in paper work. There seems to be an endless flow of emails to read and answer, forms to fill out, and reports to be written. I find it very stressful trying to keep on top of all the administrivia when I’m trying to cover course content before the end of the year and trying to prepare my students for exams.

You know how sometimes you can forget to do things that can be really helpful. Well, I forgot about the one minute rule.   The one minute rule is  an excellent strategy to help reduce the stress of dealing with much of the paper work I have to do that is trivial but deemed essential.  Of course, I have to remember to use the one minute rule.

What is the one minute rule?  It’s a strategy that encourages me to complete any administrative task that I can complete in a minute. Often, a minute is all  it takes to read an email and send a reply or complete a form and return it to administration or guidance.  The one minute rule  helps prevent small tasks from piling up and becoming  giant chores. I have to thank Gretchen Ruben for making me aware of the one minute rule.

The one minute rule is an antidote to stress and resentment. It helps me change the way I look at the demands on my time and energy. When faced with yet another administrative  task <sigh>, I tell  myself  it’ll only take a minute to complete the task  and  because a minute  isn’t a very big commitment  it’s no big deal.  I can relax. I don’t dwell on the fact that those minutes can add up.  That would be counter productive. Positive self talk is  important in helping reduce stress.

I think I’ll put a post-it note on my desk tomorrow  to remind me about the one minute rule.

 

photo thanks to  Morton Fox

My husband Kurt, who is not a teacher, made an excellent point about teachers the other day. He told me that a teaching staff is like a sports team. The rookie players that sign a new contract with a team do not get always get to play the positions that they want. I had mentioned that I wondered why new hot shot teachers( I mean that very respectfully because some of our rookie teachers are really amazing) get hired in June to play a certain position, I mean teach a certain subject and then find in September they’re not assigned to play their favourite position after all. In fact, rookie teachers might be teaching a subject they’re not even all that familiar with. Kurt argued that the rookie members on the team are there to support the team. That may mean getting the less desirable assignments. They may be future most valuable players, but right now they are rookies and have to learn the ropes and earn the respect of the veteran players and management.

I’d never thought about it that way before.

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  These are my personal views and not those of my employer.