Burnout and the Joy of Teaching

Today I read the following from one of my favorite e-newsletters from Brenda Power at Choice Literacy.

"So many of us are experiencing burnout these days, even when we're getting better or more efficient or more competent at our work. If the job is exhausting, you may be paying too much attention to what others expect, and not enough to the joyful aspects of teaching." -Big Fresh Newsletter, Jan 9, 2010

This hit home for me.

So, next week, I'm going to make a POINT of finding those joyful moments and recording them each day on this blog. I encourage anyone that MIGHT happen upon this blog to add comments and share their own joyful moments. I'm looking forward to this five day experiment!

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Comment by Andrew Pass on January 9, 2010 at 1:00pm: What a wonderful idea.

This past week, I was teaching a seventh grade religious school class at a synagogue. Many of the students attend a school has had a problem with Web bullying and the assistant principal informed me that she had heard that some of my students were involved in the bullying, as bullies. She and I addressed the students about this topic together. During the conversation I brought up the fact that in Judaism there is a Hebrew phrase which roughly translates into the popular phrase, "You should love your neighbor as yourself." I explained to students that according to this phrase, which is actually a commandment, you must love yourself. (If you are bullying somebody else chances are likely that you don't feel good about something.) I looked at this group of seventh graders and said that they all have something to feel good about. They should do what it takes to feel good about themselves because people have a right to feel good about themselves. As I shared this idea with my students they all listened attentively and I felt good about sharing it.

Just a way to contribute to your post, which I hope takes off.

Andrew Pass
http://www.lessontech.blogspot.com

Comment by Karen on January 9, 2010 at 2:18pm: Like you, I've challenged myself to find at least one positive moment from each day and blog about it. I'm going to try and do this every day this year. It's my way of trying to convert myself from a "glass is half-empty" person to a "glass is half-full" person. After eight days of doing this, I do feel a bit better about things. At least I'm constantly reminding myself to look for the positive; sometimes I have to look a bit harder, but it's worth the effort.

I'm looking forward to hearing all about your joyful moments!

Karen "McTeach" McMillan
http://thoughtsofmcteach.blogspot.com

Comment by Michelle TeGrootenhuis on January 9, 2010 at 3:46pm: Thanks for the *positive* comments Andrew & Karen! I sure hope that some of our CR2.0 colleagues take part in this five day challenge. I'm looking forward to next week!