You can toil over lesson plans til your brain explodes, you can grade until your body drops, but care is almost innate. I do acknowledge that EVERY teacher must care about their students to some extent. The problem is, some teachers just don’t know how to express it. It’s almost impossible to work on improving your care – either it’s there or it isn’t, but you can work on improving HOW you express it.

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I’m taking a quick break home this next weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I’m no good at giving gifts; I’ve never been. However, this year I’m trying to change that. And it all starts in the classroom.

At the beginning of the year I created a spreadsheet with all my student’s birthdays. When their birthday hits, I greet the “happy birthday!” as they walk into class and give them this:

Just a small token to acknowledge: “Hey, it’s your day! You know it. I know it. I hope you enjoy it.” Something really small, but students love it. Makes them feel at least a little special as they spend a portion of their birthday in my classroom.

With 130+ students and 365 days in the year, you can imagine that I’m handing out a few of these every week. It is overwhelming to play caregiver to so many, but it’s the little things that make it happen.

Unfortunately for me, I did not hear that piece of advice until AFTER I had my long, long hair chopped off this past week. I’ve never had my hair shorter than below my armpits. In fact, until my senior year of high school, my hair was so long it grew past my knees! I could sit in it. I could use it as a blanket when I was cold.

So to get a short cut was a big thing for me. But I had to do it.

TWO REASONS:

1. As a teacher, I just COULD NOT muster up the time and extra effort needed to comb/wash/dry my hair as necessary…and that was gross.
2. 7th and 8th graders would mistake me for a student and HIT ON ME every time I wore the school uniform on Fridays (I don’t know about your school/job, but our “casual Fridays” are days when the staff comes in wearing our kids’ school uniform: a collared shirt with our school seal, and khaki pants). I’d had enough of that.

My hair stylist, when he was finished with his masterpiece said, “I normally don’t say this, but you look so much older!”

Just the look I was going for.

P.S. To recap my students’ reactions when they saw me walk in w/ my new ‘do:

[scream] AHHHHHHHHHH!

Oh my god! It’s like your a different person!

Why did you cut off all your beautiful hair?! I’m so sad!

So, next time you’re considering growing a beard, getting a new piercing, or coloring your hair anywhere in the middle of the school year, consider this: Your kids will FREAK out! It’s great It’s been a week, and I stilll hear, “Oh my god!” everytime I walk down the halls.

Whenever I provide my own pointers in this blog, I don’t mean to be patronizing nor do I presume that I know it all. I’m just sharing what’s worked for me so far, and am putting it out there in hopes that somebody might get something out of it.

So, here goes, presenting my methods of coping:

(1) Wake early.
Late night work is filled with traps. Folks on gchat, television shows, the idea that you’ve got ‘all night’ to finish something up, etc. Rather than sleeping late to tweak a lesson plan, I’ll try and sleep early to wake early.

Workwise, I do this for two reasons: I’m FORCED to work uninterrupted and I’m FORCED to work within a time limit. It’s easier to get that work done when there’s absolutely nobody online to chat with save for a few crickets. For example, if I wake up at 5a. I know I MUST be done by 7a in order to get to work on time. 2 hours. Let’s get it done.

Healthwise, I do this for one HUGE reason: to make sure I get enough sleep.

(2) Allow yourself me time everyday.
It’s easy to forget about yourself in the whirlwind of thoughts, plans, and to-do lists. ‘Me time’ is crucial to maintain balance. Whatever it is you enjoy doing (even if it’s straight vegging), make sure you give yourself a bit of time everyday where you ALLOW yourself to do it. By allow, I mean don’t think about school or students or work AT ALL during that time.

(3) Let it go.
If a lesson doesn’t go well, if you feel like you’re not reaching a student, if you feel like you’re not planned enough, let it go. Time will always move forward, and dwelling on the downs of your day will eat you alive. Simple, but believe me when I say it’s so easy to hold onto something negative when you’re a teacher. You’ll definitely fail, you’ll definitely have days where you suck, and it’s all good cus that’s to be expected.

(4) Realize that good things happen everyday in your classroom.
It’s easy to focus on the negative. Student A and B are over there in the corner acting up. Students C and D are not getting ANYTHING. Your focus tends to shift on them, and you forget about students E through J that are there… doing work… focused… eager to learn. We forget about students E through J because we must tend to the needs of students A through D. But remember that they’re there. Remembering small victories makes petty little arguments and other ‘losses’ feel a lot smaller.

(5) Vent.
One thing I valued about being in OTF was meeting a group of teachers I was able to vent to on the nightly. They were wearing the exact same shoes as me, and to be able to share my frustrations with them was highly valuable.

(6) Mini-meditations.
I’ll usually do this during lunch or my prep period, when no students are around. From wherever I’m at (usually at my desk) I’ll close my eyes, and breathe deeply for a minute. Just a minute. Afterward, I’ll feel re-centered and re-energized even in the midst of the busiest/most stressful days… when students and the rest of the world seem to be conspire against you.

(7) Personal days & sick days.
Many teachers are like robots, never missing a day. In my district, we’re given 5 personal days and 10 sick days. However many you’ve got, put them to use. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking a ‘mental health day.‘ Sometimes you’ve just got to hit the pause button. (I’ve already taken one this year).

(8) Read teacher blogs.
This goes along the lines of #5. It’s comforting to know I’m not alone in this endeavor. Not only that, but you’ll stumble upon lesson ideas and other tips along the way. How do I find them? Either search edublogs, or click on comments on teacher blogs I already read. Here, maybe you can start at this spot: www.thefacultyroom.org

(9) Sit in on your colleagues’ classrooms.
Same idea as #5 and #8. Again, teaching is collaborative. Take advantage of that!

Wally once said lifehackers “just point out the obvious things” but I don’t care. These work for me, and I wanted to share.

I’m lucky to be in a happier place now, but I realize these next few months will be tough. To help myself and other new teachers out there, here’s a few tidbits I picked up on ‘how to work’ as my first year progressed:

1. Work hard. But don’t work stupid.

You might find yourself working til the wee hours of the night perfecting and tweaking a lesson. Limit yourself to a certain time limit. Often those extra hours do not add anything significant to the overall scheme of things. Those extra few hours of relaxation will contribute more to your actual execution of the lesson than anything else. It’s all about balance.

2. Limit the Paperwork.

You can get buried alive in all the assignments you’ve got to grade. You can spend hours and hours grading and editing every tiny mistake, or you can choose your battles. In my experience last year, I focused my grading efforts on assessments. I felt that was the best way to guage a student’s overall progress. Homework assignments, classwork, and other gradeables, I simply glanced over and checked. There’s simply too much to go over.

Again, work hard but don’t work stupid. Work smart.

3. Maintain Balance.

I’m a huge fan of the book 4-hour work week. Though the book’s target audience are self-employed entrepeneurs, there are several methods applicable to teachers. In it, the author Tim Ferriss offers advice on how to maximize time and efficiency. In one exercise, he asks the reader: “if suddenly, due to a condition, you were told you could only work 2 hours a day for the next month, how would you work during those 2 hours?”

The purpose is to rethink the way you work. Focus not only on productivity, but also on efficiency. This is why I like to wake up early and this is why I like to stay in my classroom after school. Those early morning hours and those afterschool hours are the hours I’m most efficient with my work.

In a recent interview on men’s journal, Ferriss says: “I want to either be in a complete state of relaxation or productivity. When you end up in the middle, you’ve got neither.” The “work hard and play hard” MO is something us teachers GOT to adapt. In fact, I’d say it’s almost crucial if you’d like to keep your sanity.

4. Stay As Paperless As Possible.

You’ll want to keep EVERYTHING you create this year. I create homework worksheet assignments daily by copying, clipping, and pasting stuff from my textbook. Though it worked out well, those hardcopy sheets are ALL OVER THE PLACE. Create an organization system that’ll help you keep track of anything that’s hardcopy. It’s helpful to know exactly where everything is, everything you’ve ever created.

Everything I’ve created digitally (assignments, lesson plans, slide decks, and other handouts) are accessible right at my fingertips! A quick search on quicksilver and it pops up right there in front of me. Staying as paperless as possible not only limits the amount of paper clutter in your classroom, it helps you preserve all your creations so that you may easily access them in the future (and share with your colleagues).

5. Beg, Borrow, and Steal.

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but this really works. Do not be shy to ask for help. If another teacher at your site teaches what you teach, ask them for their resources! If you catch a blogger online that posts up some sweet slides, send ‘em an email and see if they can burn you a copy. If you meet a teacher whose got anything, beg ‘em for it! The beauty of the teaching profession is that we are not in competition with one another. We’re all here for the same purpose, and we’re all willing to help each other out.

I hope this post can help you!