Frenetic. . . Fragmented. . . Frazzled. . .
It’s Friday afternoon, 3:30 p.m., and I’m running behind schedule. In fact, I’m about a week behind the lesson plans I created in August, and I’m trying to figure out what’s slowing me down. I’m proud of myself for trying new teaching strategies such as blogging, but I haven’t quite figured out how to “replace” old ones. My students have been such good sports, supporting my efforts to discuss online and make our discussions more student-centered; but I’m feeling out of sync and fragmented.
Wordsworth’s poem, “The World is Too Much With Us” keeps running through my head, and I want to be “a pagan suckled in a creed outworn” so I can look forward to a weekend for a change rather than dreading the piles of papers, laundry, letters of recommendation, and emails that need my immediate attention. It’s so tempting to keep teaching the way I’ve always taught because it takes so much time to try new strategies. I wish our district would switch to a four-day work week, and then I might feel I have time to rejuvenate. I’d like to blame my age—at 53 I just don’t have the energy I used to—but I probably need a personality transplant. I’m too “Type A,” too much of a perfectionist, and too passionate. How can Terry Sale be 54 (sorry, Terry, for publishing your age) and so laid-back, so organized, and so innovative? Well, at this point I’m going to adopt Scarlet O’Hara’s persona, because “after all, tomorrow is another day.”
Wordsworth’s poem, “The World is Too Much With Us” keeps running through my head, and I want to be “a pagan suckled in a creed outworn” so I can look forward to a weekend for a change rather than dreading the piles of papers, laundry, letters of recommendation, and emails that need my immediate attention. It’s so tempting to keep teaching the way I’ve always taught because it takes so much time to try new strategies. I wish our district would switch to a four-day work week, and then I might feel I have time to rejuvenate. I’d like to blame my age—at 53 I just don’t have the energy I used to—but I probably need a personality transplant. I’m too “Type A,” too much of a perfectionist, and too passionate. How can Terry Sale be 54 (sorry, Terry, for publishing your age) and so laid-back, so organized, and so innovative? Well, at this point I’m going to adopt Scarlet O’Hara’s persona, because “after all, tomorrow is another day.”
posted by mferrill at 3:32 PM
3 Comments:
Hey, you don't look a day over 52.
I think you need to step back and give yourself a bit of a break. If you're feeling frenetic, fragmented and frazzled, that ultimately cannot be good for your students. I don't want you to stop trying new things, because I think you've found some success with them, but maybe just limit how many new things you try at once (or in how many classes). Give yourself some time to figure out what works and what is too much, too quickly.
I echo Karl's thoughts. There is no need to replace things you are doing just for the sake of replacing them. As many of us have said about blogging, Don't blog for the sake of blogging. There is no need to change everything; it sounds like you need a good talk with Meyer or your mentor. Brad, last year in this group, chose not to make any chan ges and just thought about how he would do things. Then, as second semester rolled around, added a couple of things but jsut a few things. he has the same outlook now. Talk to him!
Having been married to a gerontologist for 27 years, I long ago stopped worrying about my age being public information (though I do think this is the first time it's been published on a blog). Just remember that, as with Kubla Khan's sunny pleasure dome, there may be "ceaseless turmoil seething" underneath every time those students turn in another stack of essays.
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