what stresses me out!
I feel stressed mostly in my private life rather than my professional life. I am raising a grandchild and although I am married I receive absolutely no assistance at home. So on top of lesson plans, homework time with the little one, grading papers, and lack of sleep, I feel extreme stressors at home.
Julie,
Once again, I have made a connection with you. I also have grown children and one grandchild and I seem to pick up a lot of slack at home. It is difficult to handle working full time, teaching part time, raising a family, maintaining friendships etc. It just seems to become too much.
The best advice I can give is that you ask for more support at home. Try to leave the stress at home when you leave to teach so that your students get the best of you. I always try to remember that the students also have stressors, so it is my job to keep them motivated to show up and learn.
Best of luck.
Jan
In order to ballance both private and school related items I find it better to do as I ask my students to do, complete all homework and preparations at school and not take them home where i know there is already very little time.
William, Interesting approach. On one hand, this probably instills a useful routine in your students that they can count on in the future. On the other, some students may do better on assignments when they are in their home environments and away from school distractions.
Dr. Melissa Read
I try to complete all work at work as well... Everyone needs time off from work to get Personal tasks done and do a better job at work. I believe you do better at work when you get a break from your work.
Parts of my professional life stress me out more than anything else in the universe. My homelife can be in a total shambles ~ I can cope. My students can be running amok and setting the school on fire ~ I can cope. What give me the greatest stress of all time is being given impossible deadlines to meet for administration goals and projects. Example - a 2 quarter summary of all homework and projects due within less than 10 days. It isn't going to be reviewed for another 5 months, but the deadline is within 10 days. That is not only frustrating, but, highly stressing as well.
I am currently working part-time, precepting our students off campus as well as teaching a class at campus. I often feel like I'm in a constant rush to get work graded, grades entered, copies made, answering student's emails and keeping up with changes that seem to be constant at the campus. Along with many other things ofcourse! I have gotten better at managing my time but this still stresses me out at times. My husband is a truck-driver and we have 4 sons ages 13,9,8 and 8 months so needless to say I don't have much time at home to get these tasks accomplished.
I can't imagine life without help at home. I am very fortunate to have an extremely supportive husband, but I sometimes feel stressed because I'm concerned that I rely on him too much and cause him stess. It takes a lot of communicating to understand and appreciate one another, but sometimes we're so tired from work and children that we just want to zone out and not talk. That's when communication breaks down and stress builds up.
Nicolette, You are lucky to have such a great partner. The communication breakdown after so much coordination is perfectly normal, especially when taking care of young children and / or a lot of household responsibilities. Try to keep the lines of communication open. It takes energy but is worth the investment.
Dr. Melissa Read
