Taking Care of Yourself
Taking Care of Yourself
(You
and Your Profession,
STF, 1993)
Wellness is often
something we consider when we get sick or face a crisis.
Then we hardly wait until we are well again.
Our wellness depends on our lifestyle and not only how we cope
with the physical demands we put on ourselves, but also the emotional
demands.
First-year teachers are
going through a transition from being a student to being a professional
teacher. Transitional phases are sometimes
difficult and painful. You may be away from
family and long-time friends for the first time.
There may be an awareness that your expectations and what you are
able to do are different. You may also be
overwhelmed with your workload and, therefore, work late into the night,
on weekends, and at lunch and recesses, to the point where you own
personal wellness begins to suffer.
You are facing a challenge
that all first-year teachers face – striking a balance.
The balance is between the following.
·
Personal life and work life.
Your
work can consume you. There is so much to do
and learn. Personal life often suffers in
the first year of teaching. Exercise is
forgotten and there is no time to meet new friends let alone join them
for activities outside of school. Taking
time to relax and exercise both relieves stress and makes your
transition easier. It keeps you healthy.
Exercise and meeting friends will maintain your energy levels.
·
Emotional life and professional life.
It’s okay to be emotional. You may
have a variety of emotions and it’s important to stay “connected” or
“present” with what’s really going on.
Experience it fully and act accordingly.
Everyone had a first year. Laugh at yourself
and enjoy your talents even when others do not.
Recognize your emotions. You can
express them appropriately rather than at times when “they just come
out.” You will need to decide if you can
live with the difference between your dream of what teaching would be
and your discovery of what it really is.
Will a career in teaching meet your intellectual and emotional needs?
·
Perfectionism and surviving.
To have the perfect lesson and the perfect class where all
students are working up to their potential all the time is impossible.
Teachers are told they can control and motivate others.
Realize that there are students in your classroom with so many
personal and home problems that - no matter how your lessons are planned
or what you do - they are not going to do any work.
Do not take this personally. It does
not mean you are not a good teacher. Look
for the help of more experienced teachers and your principal when you
need their support or ideas.
A teacher needs to contain the demands and set priorities. It
takes too much energy to be perfect all the time. No one else
expects a first-year teacher to be perfect. Survival of the first
year depends on letting go of thinking that you have to be able to do it
all, all the time.
·
Asking for help and doing it all
yourself.
You
are a trained teacher with new ideas and information.
Situations or concerns may come up that you do not know how to
handle. Ask others and ask early.
It is not a sign of incompetence to ask questions.
Other people have experience in areas that we may not have.
Asking early many save a lot of grief and a lot of time.
Ask for support. Be honest about how
it hurts or how excited you are about your new project.
·
Helping others and helping yourself.
Are you someone who is always there to help others even if it
takes time away from what you want or need to do?
There is nothing wrong with helping others unless it is to your
detriment. This sets up resentment and
eventually leads to problems in relationships.
If you worry about everyone else’s needs, you will not have any
time to meet your own needs.
·
Saying “Yes” and Saying “No.”
It
is all right to say “No” to too many extracurricular activities or
assignments. First-year teachers often think
they have to do everything that is asked of them and do it well.
There are just so many hours in a day and you have just so much
energy. If it is too much for you, say “No.”
It does not help anyone for you to be so stretched that you
either cannot do anything well or you are not getting the sleep you
need.
Our tendency is to direct stress management toward the symptoms rather
than to make changes in the source. If you are having symptoms of
too much stress, look at where you are out of balance. If you
cannot figure out how to get in balance, get support from friends and
staff members.
For additional information or
research, check this site:
http://www.oocities.org/tsannieburseth/index.htm
Back