Get Your Students Hired
That happens to me all the time. I work at home quite a bit and that conflicts with HOME time. It is hard to separate home responsibilites and Work responsibilities at times.
I am currently homeschooling one of my teenage children. Having to do that and then still juggle teaching duties can be quite a challenge.
The stressors are many. Several due to my personal life. My mother has dementia and has had many health issues associated with that. Family may not understand how difficult this disease process is on the person & loved ones. There are a few due to schools-but very few. My stressors are more due to personal issues.
Professional/Job Stresses:
Ill-prepared students who don't want to take this required class
Constant load of essays to grade (English composition classes)
Professional/Personal Stresses:
Unfinished manuscript
No time for personal learning
Personal stresses:
Husband's health issues
Long-term "guest" in our personal space
Children just moved away (job change), leaving us with serious grandchild withdrawal symptoms
Job/income uncertainty
House clutter and maintenance
If I manage my work schedule more efficiently and give my nutrition more attention so that my energy improves, I ought to be able to mitigate some of these. (I also probably need to do less self-criticism about all the things I think I "ought" to do!)
I'm an Atlanta person, too. I try to choose back roads before 7:00 or after 9:00am and before 4:00 or after 6:00pm. When I leave my night classes at 10:30 or so, I have clear sailing!
Jeremy, That's a great outlook an approach. Modern life can be tough. On one hand, we have access to such great technology that we can use to support us. On the other hand, sometimes the technology itself can make life more complicated. Taking each day one day at a time is a great approach.
Dr. Melissa Read
day to day living in modern society can be very stressful unless you learn to prioritize your life. Bills, family, work everything if you try to look at everything as a whole it can be very overwhelming. I try to break priorities down and deal with one thing at a time. Tomorrow is a new day!!
Lori, Sounds like you are balancing a lot of stress right now, compounded from difference sources in life. That's really tough. Do you have some coping mechanisms that you use to deal with all of this? I appreciate your sharing it all with us in this forum. Sometimes sharing is a good first step.
Dr. Melissa Read
Julie, That sounds like a tough spot. Often times in teaching, we are asked to 'do more with less.' As resources and people decrease, we are often pushed to our limits. Everyone has a threshold and sounds like you are just about there. Stay strong.
Dr. Melissa Read
There are so many things that causes stress. The instructor has to deal with irate at times. The student needs can be overwhelming. Also, the college can be overwhelming sometime because, of the changes that are implemented which could be for the better, but one will still have an adjustment period with all of the changes. You as an instruct have to try and juggle it all.
Currently we are short one plus instructors. Instructor hours have been cut due to lower student enrollment, and one instructor is out on long term disability. No temporary employee has been found. The work load for everyone is increased to make up for the staffing shortage. This is a huge stress. I want to be a team player, but can't help but feel somewhat taken advantage of with no additional compensation for the greatly increased work load.
Like many others, I feel I have many sources of stress. Some have been specifically identified in this module. I work in a clinical setting monday - thursday then switch to teaching on friday. Teaching on fridays are all clinical teaching but the stress lies with having to teach the "proper" book way as well as teaching how to get it done in the real world. I would like to transition eventually to lecture and clinical but lack the experience of classroom teaching and stress as to how to learn and make the transition. My monday-thursday job have the typical work stresses of working with a team that is 90% in board and carry the load while the other 10% are totally slackers and drag the others along. Home stresses lie mostly with finances, need I say more?? What this class is teaching me so far is to learn to identify specific factors that are creating stress and deal with them individually with careful and realistic approaches and expectations.
Like others who have posted here, much of my stress is self induced. Being naturally high strung is part of it (logistical), and this sometimes causes the students to be stressed as well (student needs). On the other hand, college requirements are far less stressful now than they were at the beginning.
Cause of stress: I have 5 children a wife of almost 32 years. Interaction with all of my family can be difficult most of the time due to the hours I work. I work a 13 hour shift 5 days a week. There is also the task of two class’s a day with up to 30 students per class . There are times when your home life follows you to work.
Fortunately, i am a type of guy who does not stress out much.After saying that, one area of stress is commuting to the school where I am teaching.It is 60 miles each way. Another area of stress is in keeping up with the time schedule in completing the lectuere, lab practices and assessments especially if the class contains a few slow learners.
Due to new regulations from the Dept of Ed, the main sources of stress are new regulations. As the university comes up with new policies to meet regulatory needs, there is a scramble to train and implement.
I do not do well when rushed for time. I like to take my time. Change of plans, additional work loads, broken copiers, all increase my stress levels.
Dr. Lindsay, Wow, sounds like you are balancing stress from a variety of sources but also managing it well. It's hard when you play so many different roles. Sometimes, simply switching between them is stressful. Sometimes we just need to take a time out for us - outside of the context of all the roles we play - to really unwind. Easier said than done with our schedules but a goal to drive toward.
Dr. Melissa Read