Yes, so glad to hear you'll contact your textbook publisher for supplemental material Alicia. Most publishers have plenty of templates and sample presentations to choose from. They make teaching life so much easier.
Personal/home stressors-
1. Finding time to meet the needs of my family (husband and 2 small boys) and balancing the needs of my students and teaching schedule.
2. Constant sickness this winter--at least one or more family members has been sick since Jan 1st.
Career stressors--
1. Having several professional development/administrative items due this spring on top of teaching schedule.
2. Trying to find time to create new material/notes for a Chemistry course that I am teaching. ( I found the section very helpful about contacting the textbook publisher for supplemental material. I plan on pursuing this avenue.)
As a full time employee, full time dad, and part time instructor I can certainly relate with this section of the course. By the time I get the kids ready for and delivered to school I am ready for a nap! I always try to take a few minutes when I get to work to take some deep breaths and re-center on the work task. That seems to help!
Jo I agree with you. Most of us have many different things causing stress. One or two would be bad but all of them taken as a whole can be weighty. I find "me time" to do various activities to reduce stress such as fishing,mowing the yard,woodworking,etc. These simple tasks/enjoyments allow me to shut out the stressors for a while.While I can't do them daily (or even weekly/monthly sometimes)they allow me to refresh myself & go back to work with a better attitude.I am not trying to preach just passing on what helps me.
This is a really honest list Amy. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like you've got a tremendous amount of stress in your life...coming at you from all angles. Stay strong and focus on one thing at a time. Breathing exercises could help too.
Maintaining my relationship with my fiance. The relationship has had many ups and downs, but is thankfully getting more stable after three years.
Students leaving the class or not doing the work and then quitting. My evaluation and/or hire is based on retention in some cases, and even though I feel it is unfair, it stresses me out every time someone quits.
Students who are habitually late turning in work or who barely perform at all (highly common with online teaching). I can try to help them or urge them on until I'm blue in the face, but I've yet to see consistently positive results.
The weekly seminar I have to teach is a bit stressful because I dread it. As soon as it begins, though, I find myself enjoying it.
Trying to somehow keep my family from thinking I just don't care about them because I have no time for them. I have given up on having friends. I have one friend and we talk maybe once a month to catch up. This stressor has recently changed because I currently want more time with my family.
My health is the main cause for my stress. I am usually sick in some way, so it affects my performance, attitude, and energy levels. I recently found out that my cancer is back, so that level of stress is something I can't explain or identify at this point. I am not even teaching right now; I am on leave, so the stress of what I perceive as failure is something else I am dealing with right now. I was weeks behind before I gave in and went on leave, and that was only because I found out about my prognosis. So, I basically made my employers look bad, made myself look bad, and didn't do much for the students.
I am stressed out in all areas of my life, work family, and friendship/relationships. I recently quit my full time position as a medical billing and coding professional, because of the demands of the administrators, subordinates who were unadequately equipped for the position they were filling, and unwilling to learn from me as thier supervisor. While I juggled that career, I am also a medical billing and coding insructor, the commute in the evenings from one job to the next were killing me, the fact that I had no time for my now sixteen year old son, who plays sports, and needed attention with his studies have put a great deal of stress on our family. So I decided to leave that position, and only perform duties as a substitute instructor. I have started a small billing company of my own, and I am coming to the realization, that this too is stressful.
Family
Business
Work/or the lack thereof.
Wow, it sounds like you live a very stressful life Charles and don't have a lot of time for you. It's a real balancing act but sounds like you are managing well.
I teach for several different schools, both online and on ground. My schedule changes frequently, and balancing the schedule can be a source of stress. In addition, each school has its set of policies and administrative requirements. Meeting those administrative requirements correctly can be a source of stress.
My elderly mother lives with me, and her health is declining. This is a constant source of some stress with periodic intense stress when she has needs to visit doctors.
I seldom feel stress related to student needs but some students make unreasonable demands that add to stress.
Chuck
Student needs and college requirements would be two main areas for me. I can honestly say that they no longer cause stress, but they are still the two big pressure areas for me. My work is “always there†since I’m constantly bombarded things vying for my time like emails, grading, lecturing, participating in discussions, etc. This is of course in addition to the things I would like to do for personal and/or professional development. I’ve found effective time management and adding structure to an unstructured work schedule to be my best weapons to keep stress at bay.
I do use just over 20 gallons of gas a week currently. A resent move has placed me closer to LCB Atlanta by 20 miles, saving me fourty miles each day. Culinary arts is not adaptable in total for on line education though.
Currently I have a greater level of job fulfillment than the previous Technical College where I taught.
Wow Marshall, It sounds like you use a tremendous amount of gas. I wonder if you could find an institution that offers online teaching to give you a little more flexibility and time with family.
I have found that exercise helps relieve stress. I found that I needed more than exercise to help cope with stress. I teach at an automotive and diesel school; I became an instructor because of my knowledge in vehicle repair. My hobby is restoring used vehicles which also helps relieve stress and reminds me why I liked the trade to begin with.
I commute a round trip of nearly 100 miles and at times for only one lecture class. At other times its for three classes usually spread across three shifts. A brisk walk with my dog before I leave home helps.
I think every example used in this assignment was based on my life!
Commute to work: I've learned to listen to the news and jsut ride. I'll get there when I get there!
The administration: The largest form of stress! When expectations are unrealistic and do not account for student learning outcomes, stress usually follows! Just follow the rules and do the right thing. If you adhere to the standards (that may shift!) you can combat this stressor.
The process: While I'm fluent in the material, instructional design is a different matter. A week course on how to do something is not an adequate reliever of this type of stress. Just realize its a process and slowly become more proficient.
The standards: When there is a total lack of standards, stress appears! Combat this through effective mastery of your material, the process, and the "business" of education. You can create the standard!
Hi
Many factor can cause stress in the classroom, teacher need to be ready for class before student arrive, knowing you material perfectly and let them know you are in charge of the class, knowing how to beginning your class and how to finish your class. One of my stresses in class is when student are noisy and indiscipline
Eric Andre
Those sound like very frustrating challenges Walt, particularly the accountability piece. When we are proficient at our jobs and are delivering in our roles, it's frustrating to by micromanaged.
My main causes of stress at my school are as follows:
1. The level of accountability for instructors has greatly increased for everyone. This is management's approach to insure that the less dedicated instructors follow the class syllabi and accomplish the objectives for the class. Those of us who are dedicated must now also account for everything we do in our classes which adds to our paperwork and stress levels. We now have to submit our skills based check off lists to our program director upon demand which can be weekly. Sounds like micro-managing to me.
2. It is becoming more difficult to dismiss students with serious and ongoing behavior issues. All we can do is to document and coach...and coach more. Students have gotten the message that they can do as they please without consequence. This is clearly a stressor for many faculty members.
There needs to be more accountability placed on the students and less on the dedicated faculty. If this occurs, many faculty stress related issues will abate.
Time management is a big stressor for me. I largely prefer a whole day to accomplish lesson plans and such, but with my current schedule, that doesn't happen very often. I end up procrastinating and staying up late often to accomplish things.
All of the above are stressors in my life. I drive an hour to and from work, I have a family I clearly do not have time to maintain, i go to school on line, and I have a few supervisors that can be difficult to work with, depending on their mood.
