Keeping My Cool

Posted on by

Am I cool? Suppose I’d have to actually be cool to be able to keep it. Heh.
Anyhoo… I’ve been trying really hard to stay on high ground lately. My job has been kind of surrounding me with negative people who are all down on the teaching profession and how evil administration and everyone is. Ick. We’ve had some gossiping issues too. It’s so frustrating to be like, “HELLOOO!!! I’m like ten feet away from you…do you think I can’t hear you??? And why do you care what color I’m wearing and how it ‘doesn’t go with my skintone?’ Aren’t you an adult? Don’t you have anything better to talk about???” Ugh.
One of my classes acted bad for a sub the other day. So, I got to spend all of my prep time today dealing with that. Oh, and I had a minor student-on-student strangling incident too (is strangling minor???).
So, I’m trying to stay positive and stay focused on the good and not get dragged down. So many of my students are so awesome that it really brings me so much joy & energy to be able to work with them. It’s like, “Kid strangling other kid…get out of my class! …Ooo! What a pretty mask you’re making!” Kind of a split personality thing is going on at times…but it sure beats being a bitter person.
Plus this National Board thing is killin’ me. I’m right at that point where I just have to sit down and write a buttload of stuff and organize everything. I spent six hours on Friday night just watching videos of me teaching trying to find the best unedited parts to add to my portfolio entry. Now I have to write about them and explain everything I did in the video and what rationale I use to back it all up. Then I have more entries to do with documentation and hoo-haw, then all of the assessments. I wish there was some alternative to going through this that would still give me the certification. You know…donate a kidney, fight a shark, run 30 miles in stilettos. Something less painful than this.

3 thoughts on “Keeping My Cool”

  1. Ooo, fight a shark! Especially if it was on land and you had a rocket launcher and they only gave the shark a pistol, and then in the last round you jumped out of the ring and grabbed a folding chair and hit the shark over the head with it, and the crowd went wild!
    Sorry, I had this mental picture and I just had to get it out.
    Hon, you’re doing an awesome job and I can’t believe the cool you’re keeping under so much pressure! You get an A+ for the year. And it’s only February!

  2. Keep it up Steph! Carrie and I will do our best to raise your spirits this weekend, never fear. You always get a lot of work done, and you do it well, so don’t get down about things.
    And I know what you mean about all the work environment stuff, and teaching. It’s easy to get down about things, etc. but… it’s good to focus on the good stuff. I love teaching, and I love most of my students: letting the bad apples get you down is simply not the way to go. As for the gossiping, I dunno. Don’t take part, and try to get their focus elsewhere. Sometimes that and praying is about all you can do… so hang in there.