Enrique, Your schedule sounds tough. You might consider walking outside for a few breaks if the weather is nice. A little outdoor time can go a long way.
Dr. Melissa Read
Christopher, Student attitudes can be tough. Even a single difficult student can really drag and instructor down for a semester. Sometimes, it helps to speak to students outside of class and learn more about what might be motivating their attitudes and approach.
Dr. Melissa Read
What kind of approach would you take? They are a very negative person. Whatever I have tried ended up they complained.
Causes of stress:
Work
Family
Commute
Not enough hours in a day
Learning to control stress or at least harness and use stress in a postive manner is something I strive to do. A little stress may give me the bump I need to get moving, too much stress can paralyze me. One thing that I do use to reduce stress is to ask for help when things get overwhelming. I also find when I exercise things never seem quite so bad.
My major stress in my career is that I always say "yes". I never want to let anyone down and always want to be a team player. I tend to take on more than I should.
Susan, I also find solitude in my long commute. I think about my day and am able to take situations in perspective and come up with a better game plan. In addition, the drive serves as a wonderful transition allowing me to change hats between instructor and wife/mother.
My stressors revolve around my students mostly. I want students to find success, however, if they do not do their work on time I feel bad issuing a bad grade. I do it, those are the rules, but I still know that failing grades sting. Therefore I am flexible on late items, but I cannot hold their hands.
In the work environment there are a lot of tasks that exert stress on the instructor. One of those is classroom management. Due to the dynamic nature of higher education and the topics discussed there are bound to be confrontations.
I felt that almost every one of the stressors as outlined in the module applied to me. I have a two hour commute to the school - which was fine during the longer schedules but after our school's application of the 5 Week Professional Pacing schedule - now becomes very hectic. Students (I teach art) are rarely organized - which plagues many artists I know - but it does become distracting. In addition I have not been teaching very long - and really hit the ground running when I started.
Most of my stressors are from the student needs and college requirements. I'm a fairly organized person.
For me, juggling responsibilities and standards seem to be my greatest stressors. Juggling responsibilities is just the nature of the beast, and I take that for granted. As for standards, constant shifting of priorities by the school administration and inconsistencies in how policies are applied are constant sources of conflict and stress.
Developing a list of stressors is a good idea. A major stressor I have experienced is when communication fails at work, for example, the changing of a textbook. You have one and the students have another. Instead of stressing I tried to turn the experience into a teaching tool. I think it helped. I also like to get away. I enjoy silence as well as music.
girlfriend and her children and i all live together now. that can be stressful with a new family all living together. and since we've moved, i now commute an hour to work. i thought i'd have switched jobs by now, but i haven't.
home life, work life, daily living
The major causes of stress at my college stem from the administration. Cutting instructors hours but still expecting the same amount of work to be performed. Not having the appropriate materials: books, copy paper, dry-erase markers, etc. available creates a stressful environment for both the instructors and the students. Previous administrations have not acted like this.
Vicki, That's a positive outlook and approach. It's great to be able to turn challenging experiences into learning opportunities. In this way, challenging experiences can make us better.
Dr. Melissa Read
Some stressors in my life is that I teach at a career school science to students who feel that the class is a waist of their time. I also some teach concepts that I complete disagree with. In my personal life, I homeschool my kids two days of the week. The same two days that I teach at the career school. I do admit that the schedule is more consistent now and so the stress level has dropped. I have to drive to the other side of town and the commute from work is a great stressor because it is 5:00 pm traffic. I also feel stressed from the standards needed to keep my job (such as in service days, professional development classes, etc.) not mention I am in school myself. Many different hats and sometimes it gets overwhelming.
There are many stressors in life but I find that people stress me out my immediate supervisor has been unfair to some of her instructors including me and it bothers me to the point of stressing me out. Students that are constantly late for class or do not show up for class can be stressfull. In my personal life its sometimes problems that my adult daughter is dealing with even though I have no control over them and relationships are stressful for me at times. I would like to know how others are dealing with the stresses of life on a daily basis?
I completely agree with this statement! Being pulled in a million directions, work piling up, student needs and adult students that feel the need to fight with each other are a HUGE part of my stresses!
I have multiple stressors due to having more than one job and trying to juggle the intracacies teaching.
Benjamin, Balancing more than one job can be tough, particularly because you likely also have a home life to focus on too. Making a combined to do list could help so you can see all your tasks and priorities in the same view.
Dr. Melissa Read
Rhonda, It sounds like work and personal relationships are giving you the most stress. The behavior of others who we work and live closely with can be disappointing when it is not in line with our expectations. In these situations, we've got to focus on changing what we can control as there are lots of things we can't control when living and working with others.
Dr. Melissa Read
Work/ life balance.
Trying to please others.
Need to keep up to date on information.
Trying to do too much.
Not being willing/able to say "NO"
