It's nice to hear that you strike a balance between giving time to yourself and to others. Giving time to yourself is so important and so many instructors forget that.
i too seem to be so busy that i don't have time for myself. on days off i spend half of the day doing what i want and the other half doing what other family members want.
I find that the school requirements for turning-around grades in a 72-hour period is very stressful. They also want meaningful feedback to the students. All the assignments are written assignments from 1000-2000 words in length and must comply with APA format. These are graduate level courses and it takes time to read and analyze the responses the students submit. The school will have 25-30 students in a class and there are two assignments per week. I am lucky compared to many of the other instructors. I am a fulltime caregiver for my spouse and therefore only work out of my house in an online environment.
My stressors are two-fold: 1) School standards and class size, and; 2) Personal requirements of be close-by for responding to my spouse as her needs dictate.
The long commute to work was causing me stress. I now take a different route home than the hectic freeway. I accept the fact that it will take me an hour each way. I factor that in regarding what time I need to leave for work each morning. I am not running out the door late, spilling my coffee all over. The drive in is calm and I think about my goals for the day.
This is a great list Garry. I particularly like how you mentioned ethical conflicts. These can be very stressful indeed, and often occur when working with students.
Stress cna come in many forms:
logistical (organizational) factors: Including work loads, grading, attendance, mandatory development cources, etc.
student needs: Including couceling, tutoring, ethical conflicts, etc.
college requirements: Demands of the job
home life: need we say more, family, financial, etc.
Wow...just simply managing my very busy academic research agenda; quality time with my family; keeping healthy; publications. The list is almost endless.
This is true. Your classroom context seems to parallel real life closely. This is the best kind of learning environment because students will be very prepared for the real world when they complete training with you.
the part of my job that would give people alot of stress be ,recieving the wrong order or the order not being brought to the class on time. Also recieving menues for paryies the day before wich gives you no time to olan for. I always try to explain to the students this kind of stuff happens all the time so just deal with it and make it happen. There is no sense in complaing about because it doesn't make matters any better.
I can divide my stressors into a few major categories with some sub-categories:
Work
Meeting student needs
Meeting faculty & staff needs
Meeting administration / institutional needs
Professional growth
Completion of Master's degree program
Home
Taking care of my family
Balancing these and other stressors in my life will be an on-going process.
Logistical
Incompetance of management
lack of consistant standards
broken equipment
procurment orders not being filled
Student needs
students with special needs
students who don't try
students who don't listen
students who are dishonest
college requirements
new curriculum
new educational standards
new time commitments
One of the general stressors in my career are that some of the students that I teach do not attend school everyday. Therefore, I becomes a challenge to keep up with all of them and grade their work. This stressor is definitely based on student needs.
I agree with that, and I think that it depends on what the stressors are ... some can be reduced drastically, others not at all.
Organization indeed can reduce the impact of stress but you are correct, it does not always eliminate it.
I think workload and time pressures or deadlines are the most stressful. Organization reduces but does not eliminate them.
grades
attendance
administrative duties
are the most stressful things in my life!
Students can indeed make or break a teaching experience. Outgoing students who like to participate in class discussion can definitely make things easier. But if you have a quiet class, go ahead and try some icebreaker activities to start and you might find you are able to get them participating after all.
The biggest causes of stress in my life is just being flat out busy.
Work, full time class load, lead instructor for 2 classes
School, full-time doctorate student
Personal life, house, time with fiancee
Balancing a full time job and teaching one long day and repeating every 10 weeks can be stressful. I have found it is more stressful depending on the students in the class. Having classes that are not outgoing and involved in the class discussion make it more stressfull.
It is ironic that you mentioned the restrooms. While on a recent road trip (Pennsylvania to Kansas and back) my friend/colleague and I both noticed that many of the state operated rest areas had cleaner, more sanitary restrooms than we have in our school.
Organizational factors:
-amount of paperwork that needs to be completed
-classroom space and arrangement
-access to resources like projectors, printers, copiers etc
-communication problems
-changing schedule every 3 months
-few opportunities where instructor input is part of decision making
Students:
-need extra help with assignments or further explanations
-absenteeism
-lack of effort
Personal:
-helping raise 2 1/2 year old niece
-expenses
-family conflicts
