Random Ramblings

Recently my feelings were hurt. Not, the you’re a terrible person kind of hurt. It was the you’re trying your best to help someone and they don’t appreciate it kind of hurt. I know, I know, this sounds like a poor me rant – which none of us want to listen to. But, I do have a point if you will bear with me.

I had a teacher (or two) complain to one of my assistant principals that I was sending too many emails. So many that they weren’t even reading them. I admit, I do send a goodly amount, but I always put in the subject area the curriculum area to which the email relates.

At first when he shared this with me, I agreed with him that maybe I should send out the information in groups and not to the entire faculty. But, after I thought about it a while, I decided that no, there are teachers out there that want to do interdisciplinary activities (Hmmmm, novel idea) and read what I send. So, I told him thanks for the suggestion, but if there were teachers who didn’t want to read what I sent, it was their prerogative to delete the emails.

I have been struggling for some time how to disperse the websites, links, and ideas that I find to my teachers. I’m using del.icio.us, but like I said in an earlier post, I need to work on the organization. How do other technology facilitators handle this dilemma?

Today, I stumbled upon a blog that hit my pity party on the head.

From Media By Sistrunk

Here are some tips on how to cope with critics.

• * It’s natural to feel hurt about criticism, but don’t drown yourself in pity. Get over it.

• * All critics are not alike. Some are just plain cranky while others consider themselves experts. If you’re lucky, you’ll run into people who offer you constructive comments – objective opinions that can help you improve your work.

• * Understand that some critics will attack anyone or anything just to draw attention to themselves – to make themselves feel superior. Don’t take the remarks personally. Shake them off.

• * Separate the critic from the criticism. Realize that any criticism – even from cranks – may carry a smidgen of truth. Be open to the fact that your work could use some fine-tuning, but never allow criticism to dampen your self-confidence.

• * Don’t dwell so much on criticism that you allow it to drain your energy and motivation. Deal with it, and then move on.

• * Understand that ALL writers have their critics. You don’t have to like it, but don’t let it kill your confidence.

After reading these, I felt a bit better. I know I won’t please everyone and most of the time shouldn’t even try, but I am conscientious about doing a good job in this new position. I also think the route to be good teacher is to share and listen when others share.

What does brighten me is that when I am working at the other middle school (I’m going to decline to say which school had the disgruntles) I have teachers stop me in the hall and thank me for sending everything that I do. The teacher who told me this today (and I swear I didn’t prompt her) has been teaching at least 30 years. She said she was very thankful and kept everything I sent that dealt with math.

So, to end my pity party, I’m going to keep on keeping on. I will tone down and be conscientious of the number of emails I send though. I hope that someone who reads this will have an idea of how I can share what I find, but not overwhelm the teachers. I want to make their jobs easier. Teachers definitely don’t need something else added to their overflowing plates.

Until next time ~ Danita

This entry was posted on Monday, December 11th, 2006 at 10:37 pm Filed under Blog and. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.