Jan

2

Three things I really didn’t need to know

Filed Under Dealing With Stress, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

christmas-puzzleI’m really enjoying the relaxed pace at our house now that the holidays are winding down. I’ve even got the time to work on my favourite jigsaw puzzle and have  it spread out all over the dining- room table. I’ve put this puzzle together many times over the years, and it’s become  an old friend that I look forward to visiting each year during the Christmas holidays. The problem is this year the visit is turning out to be very frustrating, very frustrating indeed. Why?  Well, I’m not seeing those 1000 tiny puzzle pieces as clearly as I used to. Pushing my glasses higher up the bridge of my nose isn’t helping much and putting my head down closer to the puzzle pieces  is hurting my back. Oh, the joys of aging. Time for a cup of tea.

Enjoying my cup of tea, I noticed the business section of the paper lying folded in half on one of the dining room chairs so I picked it up and idly paged through it.  I wasn’t too interested in learning more about the state of the economy and what we should or shouldn’t do in the coming year.That was reality, and I don’t have to face reality until Monday morning when the first bell rings at school. I was just about to put it down when my eye caught this headline: Madcap moments from the wide world of work. (www?) Madcap moments?  I was up for that.  These were some of the madcap moments

A Romanian school teacher was suspended for allegedly shooting a misbehaving student in the hand with a rubber bullet during class.

A Chicago public school teacher was pulled from the classroom after she taped a nine-year old special education student to his chair because he wouldn’t sit down.

German federal policewomen are being outfitted with bullet-proof bras designed to offer additional protection under their bullet-proof vests.

I think I’ll just go back to my jigsaw puzzle. I’ve learned more than I need to know. Now, where was that magnifying glass?

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Jan

1

My goal for 2009- keep my back happy.

Filed Under Blogging in and out of the Classroom, Goals, The Way I See It | 1 Comment 

back

May not be as exactly shown :)

Happy New Year!   It’s the first day of the new year, and it’s really hard not to think about setting goals for the coming year. One of my goals last year was to manage the stress of working at a job I really love. Even though I love teaching, it’s stressful and can, if I’m not vigilant, take up too much of my life. I’ve been working hard at maintaining a healthy balance between work and play. ( I’m not sure where family fits in- sometimes it’s both.)

This year one of my goals in addition to maintaining that balance between work and play is to pay some loving attention to my back. I think my back was feeling neglected, and it let me know that it wasn’t happy the only way it could. It started to hurt.

My back started to hurt and get my attention about the end of September. It proved to be quite a nuisance until the beginning of December when I decided I’d had enough. My back was going to get the attention it needed, so I started to do about 1/2 hour of back strengthening exercises, pilates and tai chi, each day.

Sometimes I have to play games with myself about doing exercise. I broke that 1/2 hour into 3 sessions of 10 minutes. Three sessions of 10 minutes each was psychologically more palatable for me. I also put my exercise mat right next to my bed so when I get up in the morning I have to step on it, and when I go to bed at night I have to step on it again- a gentle reminder. It seems to work.

I noticed a significant difference by the end of the first week of exercising.  My back loved the attention. Getting into the holiday spirit, I even decided it deserved a massage, well actually two massages. My back absolutely thanked me. I figured with all the holiday preparations coming up, it deserved a little bit extra.

Now that my back and I are on excellent terms again, I’ve decided that I want to keep it that way. I’ve found this wonderful little application that I hope will help me do that.

Ian who created ” Joe’s Goals” says he was

Inspired somewhat by Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues, I built Joe’s Goals to make it stupidly simple to create, track, and share your personal goals. It is a productivity application that is actually easy enough to use.

It’s perfect for me because I’m such a visual learner. Here’s a snap shot of my goals, and what I’ve actually done today by 1:00pm. I get to check off what I’ve accomplished- positive reinforcement I’d say. I love those tiny  check marks as much as my students do.

goals

Not only will “Joe’s Goals” help me keep track of my progress, but it also allows me to share my progress with readers. I can put a goals badge in my right sidebar which I’ve done. I guess that adds a bit of accountability, which never hurts.

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Dec

29

Now my students will believe me when I tell them they can use their strengths to help them be successful

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Goals, Special Education, motivating students | Leave a Comment 

strength
uploaded by schhmish
I’m always telling my students they can use their strengths to help them be successful. By successful, I mean help them achieve their goals. Trouble is that many of my students can’t see their strengths because school often focuses on their weaknesses, and many of them don’t have goals because they don’t think to have goals. They just kind of drift along and let life happen to them instead of making things happen to create the life that they want.

Students tell me all the time they suck at math, English, organization etc. I tell them that everyone sucks at something. I suck at lot’s of things. The thing to do is to use your strengths to help you succeed in the different areas of your life. That’s the smart thing to do. Everyone has strengths they can use to help them succeed. I tell them that I’m good at teaching people things and good at working with teenagers, but I really suck at dancing. I just can’t get my feet to do what I want them to do. So, I became a high school teacher and not a dancer. Then we discuss their strengths and explore ways that they can use their strengths to help them succeed in school, in the world of work and in their lives generally.

Often, my students don’t know what they want in life, or even think that they can have a successful life at all.They just see themselves as losers who are doomed to failure, so we spend time determining their strengths, setting goals for the future based on their strengths and planning how to use their strengths to help them achieve their goals. Basically that’s what a ot of my Advanced Learning Strategies Class is all about. But to be honest, I do much of the same thing in my grade nine math class.

I’m not sure that my students always believe me when I tell them they can use their strengths to help them be successful. I get the impression that they want to believe me but have difficulty doing so. That’s why I was absolutely delighted to find the following video where Marcus Buckingham supports what I’ve been telling them all along. I intend on showing this video the first day back after the holidays. It should generate lots of good discussions.

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Dec

25

Relaxing during the holidays

Filed Under Dealing With Stress | 4 Comments 

Holiday time is always  such a busy time, and it’s nice to take a moment to relax. I invite you to relax by joining me and doing a jigsaw puzzle.  I love doing  jigsaw puzzles.   Thanks Ms Lynch for the link to JigZone.  I’ve been relaxing after the rush at our house by doing a couple of the classic 48 piece puzzles offered on the site- don’t want to tax my brain cells too much this Christmas morning. I’ll try one of the  100 piece puzzles later,  after I’ve had another cup of coffee.  Have fun!

Click to Mix and Solve

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