Monday, August 26, 2013

Stress

The stress of work is really bothering me. It is in part due to teaching a new subject, curriculum, acquainting myself, writing ridiculously long lesson plans that are required simply because I'm an English teacher. The admin pressures - walkthroughs, student work on the walls, etc. I have questioned myself many times this year wondering if the students were truly learning.

I have 2 coworkers whom are teaching the same thing I am. Thank god for them. They give me ideas on what to teach, and how. Would I be able to do that on my own? Nope. But what bothers me is when I look at their lesson plans and see I didn't teach something, or I am behind. I hate that. I know I will get it done and I will teach my kids. At the same time I wonder if I'm going too easy on the kids. So many thoughts... and these are the things that keep me up at 2am on a Monday morning when I have to be at work in a little over 4 hours.

5 comments:

fan of casey said...

There must be some templates available online to help jumpstart the prep process. Is that not allowed? No need to recreate the wheel if you don't have to. Would other english teachers also have something to share?

Also, lack of sleep will eventually sap your effectiveness, so you need to plan for the long haul. I know, easier said than done.

Aek said...

You can do it! You will hit your stride, just keep moving forward. There was a moment last week that I thought I couldn't make it, but I'm still here on my end.

Mike said...

There are templates - PowerPoints and other tidbits of teaching advice online, but there's still a lot of scaffolding and tailoring things to my needs of what I am teaching/what my kids need to understand the material.

The English teachers I work with have shared a lot, but I hardly consider them role models for ideas - in fact I disagree with a lot they do, and am doing a lot of my own thing. My kids seem to be learning...

I'm currently looking for another profession...

Aek said...

Another profession as in another teaching job, or as in leaving the teaching field altogether for something different? You've worked so hard to get where you are, I think you should give it another shot teaching something else maybe elsewhere?

Mike said...

As in leave the profession altogether. There's so many other things I would like to try and do.