Well then stress reduction is particularly important for you to focus on Jon!
our motto is we dont stress in my class in my class stress can be a safety hazzard
Causes of stress, i guest I can say first was student attitudes, co workers, and off-course work deadlines. When you are dealing with student negative attitudes gives me stress, because no matter how much you want to help them, but if their attitude is on way. Its really depressing sometimes, just watch them shows don't care about learning, just to be called their at school. The bad part of it, when they tell you that they pay so much money to be there, and their mind set, we have to spoon fed them to learn.
Co workers gives us stress if you work with someone don't care that someone is using the room after them, they will leave the room dirty or sometimes touch your, your preparation or the thing you need for your class.
At the same time you have a Deadline to meet that day, so it fall everything to stressful day.
I agree that the business and educational objectives of career schools are often quite different Bryant. It can be particularly stressful when goals and objectives from each side conflict with each other.
One of the major stressors i deal with is administrator expectations that conflict with the business or corporate expectations. Lets keep it real, education is a business for career schools, but often there are many expectations or goals from an educational standpoint that do not neccessarily fit in the corporate or business goals. Example, in the culinary school field, purchases of equipment is neccessary on a rotating basis, but sometimes these purchases do not fit in the budgets. This is very stressfull for our instructors especially when they are trying to produce quality results in the classroom.
Most of my work stress is based on how I view my own work environment and the people I work with. I compare situations that would stress me out at pervious jobs and now say at least I’m not dealing with those types of situations anymore. Whatever is stressing me out at that moment is not that bad. This usually calms me down. I’m also one of those people who can never take a complement. Even though the person is being honest with me I tend not to believe it because I am my own worst critic.
Switching up your schedule by even just a few minutes can make a dramatic difference on commute time. Go ahead and give that a try by leaving a few minutes early as well as a few minutes late. You will likely find the perfect window.
The causes of stress in my life and career are compiled with the fact that I am also a full time time student, which in its self is stressful enough, as well as being a mom, wife, teacher and mentor.
I have to drive an hour work today. This causes a great deal of stress for me everyday. I have decided to leavev early everyday to avoid rush hour traffic. I bring my dinner to work and eat when I get to work.
This sounds like a difficult balancing act David. I can understand why you feel stressed when you don't get a chance to see your family and children. Sometimes just making a point to visit with family a few minutes a day can make a big difference.
This is a good point Patrice! As an English instructor, you are always going to have a stack of papers to grade. I wonder if you have ever tried having your students grade each others' paper. This has been a strategy that has worked well for me in the past, and ads a new dimension to the educational process too!
There are two areas that I do find stressful.
1. The ever changing work schedule. With two small children, it at times becomes difficult to regulate their lives when my schedule is not "set".
2. As an English composition instructor, I always have a stack of papers to grade. There's no way around it-- my students must write!
I am my own worse enemy--a Type A personality. I am in a place nearing retirement--next year some time and I find that just planning my retirement helps reduce my stress.
The biggest causes of stress in my life come from not spending enough time with my kids, and missing important times in their life because I am at work. Family and a busy work schedule make a difficult balancing act.
At this point in my life, I have had some health concerns that caused me to identify the stressors in my life and decrease them. My main stressors now are students, especially those who waste their education. My goal is for all the students to succeed and when they do not take responsibility and waste their education by not coming to school, being tardy, not doing homework, missing tests, it upsets me. I often pull them aside and counsel them; I even get their parents involved.
Training new instructors can be tough, but you are right in that without trained staff, it's hard to delegate. Investing your energy training staff early can pay off later. It just takes making some sacrifices up front.
The most significant cause of stress in my life is trying to juggle career and family. I feel like I am in a constant balancing act and any moment, it is all going to topple over. With that being said, even withing my career, I am stressed over balancing as well. I must balance my administration and instructing duties. If I pay too much attention to one, the other pays the price. It is a constant struggle to keep it together.
I am stressed about the quiz! As I read one of the questions about an instructor who is stressed about his friend's unmet, high expectations. The question goes on to say that his belief that simply his friendships were the cause of his stress was true. I, however, would disagree. It is not his friendships that are causing his stress but his own goals to meet these expectations has caused his own stress. One should not cut off friendships or relationships with others just because they feel stressed about their expectations. We should be able to manage our relationships and deal with these expectations in a better manner in which to deal with our stress.
Some of the stressors I face is getting in all these trainings while trying to help my instructors, and students.. They are first priority or the school can't function. The Managers that tell you to delegate are right however, you can't delegate to a new staff that doens't know how to do things. I have trainngs with my instructors and one on ones so hopefully the help with get them all on board to utilize their classroom management skills.
Yes, sometimes the sheer volume of issues that instructors receive can be daunting. Setting expectations on how quickly you can resolve these issues is a great technique in buying yourself some time.
