Been feeling kind of stressed lately from work... questioning whether or not high school is for me, and if I'm well-suited to work with teenagers... I got a lot of tips, advice, and reassurance from fellow teachers, and even from my friend the hall monitor =)
Some things to keep in mind: -the first years will always be tough and full of ups and downs, if they weren't it would be no fun.
-you will look back at this when you've got years of teaching under your belt and laugh at how much you struggled!
-you learn to manage your stress as you go on, new teachers tend to freak out about everything
-don't be so hard on yourself!!
** This was a big one for me, I didn't realize just how much pressure I was putting on myself and the expectations I set for myself as a teacher. I was reminded that as a new teacher, you'll make mistakes. Lots of them, and that's normal. That's how you learn. I was told to cut myself some slack, and learn to laugh at myself...
The hall monitor told me a wonderful quote today. He said that many teachers are not as nice and don't smile as much as I do. He said to tell the kids,
"Don't take my kindness as a weakness". I was like WOW. That just summed up how I've been feeling for the past few weeks. I'll definitely remember that one for future reference.
HAHA this one's funny xD
