Feeling Stress?
Posted by Kim Murphy on 17 Feb 2009 | Posted in: Life After School, Teachers and Teaching
This is me after Jazzercise. I’m tired, I’m sweaty, and my photographer is standing really far away from me—so I’m probably a little stinky as well. I try to exercise whenever possible, but let’s be honest, shall we? I would rather be sitting on the couch eating a cheesecake and watching reruns of House. (I just love that surly physician!) There are two reasons why I force myself to work out—the first being that I don’t want to buy larger pants. The more important reason is to reduce stress. Teachers have a lot of stress in their lives! What about teaching stresses you out the most, and how do you combat that stress? Do you exercise? Talk to coworkers? Bite your nails? Take bubble baths? Go to professional development workshops? Drop me a quick message and let me know. And if you happen to have a good cheesecake recipe, I would be tickled if you would tuck that in as well!
Your exhausted blog host,
Kim Murphy
25 Comments |
Subscribe
|
Email This
I know what you mean about being stressed at school and then coming home to more. I am a pre-k teacher to children with disabilities and have a 13 year old boy, a 9 year old girl and two step-daughters 6, and 4. I love to get outside!! Mowing or working in the flower bed or just sitting on the front porch watching the birds. This is a great way for me to destress. I also do yoga.
This is coming from Ghana, West Africa. I teach Yr.1 in a British Prep School. Very long hours, 7:30 to 5:00pm each day. This brings a whole set of stress alive. What i do to combat it, is walk a very long distance around an area, where i can admire stuff on my way. It works for me.
I work in Oklahoma,& our teachers are paid at the bottom of the scale, yet we have to achieve at the top of the nation. I do not get a smart board like the math teacher & have i buy my own vcr,dvd,projector, dictionaries, etc..I am against merit pay because all teachers have helped the student to achieve not just one teacher, and again I will be discriminated against. I know the rate of heart attacks & cancer is rising for teachers, yet our retired teachers do not earn enough to retire other states where their relatives might reside, nor do our retired teachers receive full paid health insurance like other states. We are prime examples of STRESS that kills.
Wow! I have read 22 replys to this “Feel Stress” article. I am a teacher and I have taught in three states,two countries and all grade levels. One thing that I have learned is teaching causes stress, for all the reasons previously mentioned. For ten years I have tried exercise, food, diet, walking, sleeping etc… The closest cure mentioned is “Don’t sweat the small stuff” and I can add “Don’t worry about things you can’t control”.
I am surprised however that no one mentioned the obvious “meditation”. Stress is an emotional-mental dis-ease that causes physical pain. So, the cure must be mental as well. Thinking of your self first is what meditation is, if you take 20 minutes first thing in the morning, before doing anything else, by going inside yourself, feel the inner you, give yourself peace and tell yourself that you will not allow stress to enter your day, you will begin to see and feel a difference in your day and your students. Once the students know they can’t stress you out they will stop trying. If you need an extra boost during the day, give yourself another 20 minutes somewhere quiet.
I am in grad school part time (with what seems like a full time course load) studying Adolescent Education and I work full time in telcommuncations. I too get stressed and I anticipate being stressed when I start teaching 6th grade mathematics this upcoming fall. Stress is something that all people deal with and it was very helpful reading this because you all are where I hope to be and the suggestions offered were humorous yet valuable… My stress reliever is sleep
I was over stressed too. I landed myself in the hospital with horrible chest pains. I felt like a failure. Now I destress and realize I am not superteacher!! I can’t do everything and I can’t fix everything. I am walking again, watch what I eat, and sleeping more. If I don’t take care of me no one will. So when I got the “good” news that I was getting a difficult student from another classroom. I just said “Okay” and that I would do what I could(but I not going to try to fix her). Her problems started before she came to me and they with be there after she leaves my room. Take care of yourself and the rest will take care of itself. You can teach from a hospital room (I tried). Peace
I leave school AT school. Yup, I know, it seems crazy. But once I leave that building, that’s it…no more school stuff. I work really hard to use all my time efficienty during the day so that I don’t have anything left over to do at night or on the weekends. This has been the biggest stress relief ever!
Also, ASK for help. Three teachers got together and we all help each other out. We share room moms, plan together, and make copies for each other. It is a major help.
i just wanted to say that I love this site
I know what you mean, about being stressed. I recently had and anxiety and stress attack- due to too much on my plate. My doctor advised me to walk for 3 miles each day, and to “not sweat the small stuff”. That’s difficult to do when you work at a preschool with 24: 3-4 year olds and have 2 children at home, and one being a 14 year old! Good Luck!
I do Karate! It is great to stretch out the stress and move your body. I don’t do it for the violent aspect I do it for the goals to reach and the workout. I also learn great self defense techniques that make me feel confident about my body in space as well as my capabilities as a strong woman. Confidence is a great stress buster as well. I do it with my five year old which means we spend some time together. It is hard to wrangle 16 kids at school and then go home to the same thing. I teach Pre-K so it is indeed stressful. This helps me have a personal goal that is my own and that helps me de-stress. Also I practice my Katas (forms) in the morning before work. They only take 10 minutes and it helps me stretch. I hope this helps. It may also help you to know that I am 6 months pregnant and still going strong. I get my green belt at the end of the month!
I feel very stressed when I come home from work. It seems to be that the stress is not just from work, but also at home. We teachers spend our days with children, and when you have children at home as well, there just doesn’t seem like there is enough time to take a break for yourself. AS much as we love our jobs, there needs to be time to de-stress. With little time during the day, I find little increments of time throughout my day. As a preschool teacher, we have an hour and 45 minutes rest time to take advantage of. My co-teacher and I eat our lunch and do some Yoga. I used a digital voice recorder to record one of my favorite yoga routines and while the kids are resting we relax and focus on our breathing. This helps us get through the remainder of the day. Once I get home, I feel I have a little more energy than usual. I find my 20 - 30 minutes to walk with Leslie Sansone, as well. It is a convenient way to exercise no matter what the weather. During the warmer months, I try to encourage the whole family to go for a walk together after dinner. This aids in digestion and we get some family time to talk about school issues, upcoming events, or our next family time trip! It really pays off to find the 20 minutes a day to devote to yourself because you are the most important person in your life and you should come first!
Well, first of all you must have chocolate at least once per day! I keep some in my desk drawer at school. After school I try to do some sort of exercise…stability ball and yoga are great stress reducers and with routines that are only 20-30 minutes it’s not hard to squeeze in. During school, I can walk around the track while the kids are at recess. I try not to do school work every night, but rather a couple of nights per week or just weekends. This allows me time to step away from school and concentrate on other things. I also watch my carb intake. I find that a high carb diet is very draining. I try to eat a high protein diet, very few if any sodas and eat quality snack a couple of times a day. This keeps me from getting really hungry and helps to sustain my energy level. I would highly recommend getting a massage once in a while. If you live in a place where there are massage schools, you can have a student give you the massage and the cost is very minimal. Hope this helps.
Living in a cold winter climate it is difficult to get outside and walk or bike, so I joined a 24hr.,7 days a wk. fitness gym. Many of my co-worker teacher friends have also joined. It does help deal with the stress so it is well worth the bucks. Also, don’t forget to laugh along with the students once in awhile. Some days are more difficult then others, but the kids do like to see you laugh. It lets them know that you enjoy them. Also, when you feel stressed and need to take a deep breath have the kids do it along with you. My Kindergartners do and it does help them relax and settle down.
I love all your ideas and would really like it if you could help me. I work 6:45-3:30 as a pre-school teacher of 7 very high energy boys, 1 of which is special needs and a just as active girl. I don’t find time to do circle time anymore and I barely find time to do art. We have gym class on Mondays and then we go outside and then it is lunch so Mondays are out. After work I go to another job due to I don’t make enough money:) which I am glad I do have because my husband just got laid off. Well I work there till 7:30 and on my feet running the whole time. I am a pharmecy tech at the hospital. I literally never sit down. I am home by eight and am exhausted, I eat and clean/laundry and go to bed. My husband is not helping w/ the cleaning. He is busy ice fishing. I have tried w/ this!!! I also work for the hospital every other Sat. so when I am off I am busy cleaning and getting stuff ready. I feel like I can never destress and am never prepared for the preschool job anymore. Any ideas????? HELP!!!!
I was happy to read that other teachers are feeling stressed. I have been taking this vacation to try to understand why I also feel stressed. I have come to the realization that it is not the students, parents, administers, or colleagues that make me stressed but me. I love to do hands on projects and have the students work in stations or centers even though I teach third grade. The curriculum has become such that it is impossible to keep it all up. I have come to the conclusion that LESS STRESS IS LESS MESS. I am giving up this crazy race and learning to empower my students as learners with the curriculum that is being demand. Yes I did some interesting and fun projects but no one is more important than me. In the end no one can teach at the speed I was going. Slow and steady wins the race!!
Not being prepared in the morning stresses me out. So I like to make sure the class is set up before the kids come in and I have extra stuff for them to do. I get stressed that kindergarden is now first grade and preschool (which is what I teach) is now kindergarden. I have been teaching for about 25 years and I love it. Remembering how much I like what I do helps me destress. Taking deep breaths, laughing with the kids, running around the bike track with the kids helps me destress. Reading what you all are saying helps me destress. It is important to remind myself to take good care of me.
Thanks Kathleen
Stress : ( Chocolate : ) A good power nap seems to help, I’m up at 5:00 a.m. everyday and I teach 3 & 4 year olds so my body is always moving and exhausted by 4 p.m.
I also walk with Leslie Sansone. You can get an energizing 2 mile walk done in half and hour. She has lots of videos to choose from (with varying number of miles) and you can walk in your home rain or shine. I try to walk in the morning before school, because I, too am either tired or busy with my own family activities in the evenings. I do feel better - more energy, etc - when I take time to exercise. It’s a good stress reliever.
I also am an exerciser. My fave are the Leslie Sansone DVD’s and videos. I’ve been doing them for years. I’d be interested in knowing what about all our preschool type jobs is most stressful to us? Quite honestly, my highest stress has nothing to do with the kids, though they can be a challenge. It’s the low salary I receive. I know, after many years, that we aren’t in this career for the money, but, my stars and stripes, it’s hard to make ends meet any more. THAT’s stress to me.
WOW! I am so glad I read the replies to this. I have been trying to think of ways to destress and while my current job of caring for children from my home is much less stressful than the last day care position I had - The stresses that come with going it alone, while worth it, can take their toll. I am definitely going to get an exercise ball, probably in several sizes so that I can sit on one and my small people can use theirs to exercise and play with. Also, I showed this to my boyfriend and he said we should see if any Wii Fits are in stock because we originally got our Wii just for that purpose. I too tend to curl up with a good book in winter and thus far long walks with the kids have been out due to the weather! Thanks for all the good ideas : )
I’m also exhausted at the end of the day. This is what I try for helping me “work out” during the day. Instead of sitting on a chair I sit on an exercise ball. We’ve all heard about having the high energy child sit on a ball during the day so their body has to concentrate on something else and it allows their minds to engage, so I’ve applied the same principle for some core muscle exercise. I even (sometimes) sit on a ball when I watch television at night!
Walking right after work is a great stress reducer also. Take the dog for a walk. I live in Wisconsin and have finally admitted to myself that I can buy clothes to keep warm in, even if it’s zero outside. The children go out if it’s above zero, so why can’t I? It’s a mind game.
I hate to exercise but love to walk. So spring,summer and fall I’m fine. Winter is when I just want to curl up with a good book and forget it all. Today will be the first day of our Walk on Wednesdays group at school. My principal has given permission for a small group of teachers,parents and people from the community to walk the halls after school. Who knows;we may add days and continue on the playground this spring!
I am really exhausted at the end of the day! If I can, I take a short nap when I get home–enough to get some energy back–then I’m good to go for the rest of the evening. I seem to have a second wind and am able to do what I need to do (make dinner, do schoolwork, check up on my mom with a quick phone call, etc.). I really need to get in some exercise time, I’ll have to work on that!
I am exhausted at the end of my day. The winter weather does not help either. All I want to do is go home and sit in front of the tv with a cup of hot chocolate. I keep telling myself to get up from the couch and use the step master while watching the evening news. Better yet I make myself walk around a local shopping mall. I can hardly wait until the weather becomes warmer and the days are longer. I can go for longer walks outdoors. I used to do water aerobics and occassionally jog around the local high school track. But now I do not do any of those things. I tried low impact aerobics with some co workers after work, but all of our schedules are so crazy! I am sure this is very familiar with a lot of us. Most days, I drink 2 diet cokes, trying to cut back to one a day. I have been trying to do simple strechting exersices and that has helped me a lot. Jenny
*SMACK* Thanks! I needed that! I let down by walking, visiting friends on Facebook (I live too far to visit, and have no car), and design early childhood educational materials.
Suzi