Then I married a type B man. The
first thing he put a stop to was working past 6 pm and since I taught in a
rough neighborhood, I listened to him. Then he taught me to take time to
relax without guilt....well he tried anyway (for years I still felt guilty)!
My relaxation is reading and a nightly
bath with a glass of wine. Since I’ve
found Pinterest and blogging, I have to add those too! Yours may be exercising, walking, running, scrapbooking,
photography, knitting, bird watching, sports, cooking, even watching TV….housekeeping
does NOT count! But relaxing is
necessary so you can be on your toes the next day. No one but a teacher realizes how much it
takes out of you each day. We teach because
we love what we do (it’s certainly not for the paycheck) but even things we
love can be draining. Psychologists will
tell us that even happy things can be stressful (marriage, baby, moving to a
new house or school). You NEED this time
each day!
19 years later I think I've found the
middle road. I've realized that as teachers we will NEVER get our to-do
lists done. I had friends who stayed at work until 3am once to get it all
done...did they? No! I still get all panicky prior to the first day when I think of all the stuff I still want to accomplish But looking back(I've taught almost every grade up to 8th but came back to the little hugging guys), I have never had a student die because my room wasn't fully done on their first day. It's true! As long as their desks are ready, your desk is organized and you have your routines and procedures in place, they will do well. In fact, working changes or additions in day to day works well for them too; it keeps their interest and teaches them to look pay attention to details.
So….take a deep breath. Push down that panic if everything’s not exactly the way you envisioned….and give
yourself half an hour to go relax! I promise you'll be better for it!
So tell me…what do you do to relax each day?
