Wintertime Blues
Great thinking post from Kimberly Moritz at the Leader Talk blog. She addresses frustrations and the blues that many teachers seem to get about this time of year. I know it always hit me hard about this time. Maybe it had something to do with the short days and lack of sunlight, or maybe we (the students and I) were near exhaustion and knew we still had to keep on keeping on.
Kim made some great points, but I’m only going to share the one that hit home to me the most.
“This is dumb” is highly contagious. As a student, it’s pretty hard to get excited about a lesson when your classmates are proclaiming that it’s stupid. Teachers have to continue to maintain a positive attitude. The truth is that negative comments about the learning don’t bother the apathetic teacher; they bother the best teachers, the teachers who get it right in the classroom every day. The apathetic teacher is often oblivious to the needs of the students and couldn’t care less about the learning.
How many times have you heard “This is dumb” in your classroom? Even the best teachers will have a few that you just can’t please. If you teach middle school, this saying can be heard about 35 times a day. You have to remove yourself and realize that the kids are just being kids. There used to be a commercial that said “Don’t let them see you sweat”. No truer words could be spoken to middle school teachers. But, it is difficult not to take the negative comments to heart.
Frustrations. How do you deal with negative teachers? Some are negative 180 days a year, but some seem to get a bit low a few days a year. How do you keep the kids excited and involved when they are getting tired and spring is right around the corner?
I know, I know, keep them active and you won’t experience these problems. Well, that’s somewhat true and somewhat not. Yes, I 100% agree that you have to keep them moving or else you’ll have problems on your hands. But, we all get frustrated and down every now and then. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be human. What strategies do you use to reel your kids back in?
Now, that I have reduced myself to a mere human, I’m off to catch up on some of the sleep I’ve lost this week due to the conference.
Until next time ~ Danita
Flickr: Sleepy
March 15th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I have been in education for 9 years, the last two have been as an administrator and every year, without fail, I begin to lose focus during these months. As a teacher it waas the long stretch between breaks, and as an administrator it is the pressure of mandatory state testing(NJ takes the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment and the NJASK for the 6th abd 7th grade.) Everyone in my school is feeling it these days. I am have resigned myself to doing what I can to lighten the atmosphere and keep a smile on my face.
This attitude is so important with the kids because, as you said, they are just being kids in middle school and everything is “dumb” at this age.
I find that if I keep a basket of chocolates in my office, teachers come in to say hi a little more often. Silly trick, but it works. It works with students too. I is also ok to forget about the curriculum once in a while and just “talk” with them about their frustrations; maybe make a connection here and there while we are at it.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Brad
professionalexplorations.blogspot.com