Wednesday, I met with my bible study class.
I don’t know if the stress is starting to affect me physically, though. Lately, I’ve started to notice a pattern that I have been getting headaches or migraines on certain days of the week. At first, I thought it was my ponytail; I wear high ponytails and buns from time to time. However, I would take my hair down, and the pain would persist. The pain would usually start as a dull ache during the afternoon and get gradually worse by the time bible study began. It would never be bad enough to incapacitate me while I’m teaching and was only made better once I headed to bed for the night.
I wasn’t thinking anything of it until a couple weeks ago when I started blogging about my classroom management. The Wednesday before last my head was aching again, and the week before that, I had a headache as well. I was still attributing this to wearing ponytails. However, this past week I changed my hairstyle to ringlets, and I knew something was wrong when the headache started again. Yesterday, I had a bit of headache, too, but I attributed it to two events we had had that day. I’m starting to think, however, there might be a relationship between that headache and teaching on Wednesdays. Perhaps, my body has developed some kind of response toward it, or the stress of it is causing my body to react like this. I’m not very sure.
I am certain that I need to reduce my stress on both Wednesday and Sunday. As I’ve taken note of my responses to both Wednesday and Sunday, I notice that my rib-cage tightens, my heart freezes over like a hot a day on Pluto, and my breaths tend to remain trapped in my throat. There is a fear of stumbling over my words, while I’m teaching. The looming concern if whether my content is able to be grasped by even the youngest student. The thought of how my students are perceiving me. The lack of confidence in my own words. The curiosity if they are actually learning. The annoyance that broods in my chest when I see someone not paying attention…
In a way, I am “psyching” myself out and leaning on my own strength and understanding, which I realize is rather faulty.
One way, however, that I has been working in curtailing my stress is improving my classroom management. Learning to deal with behavior and refocus attention calmly and politely has been actually much more calming for me. When I correct behavior in a soft, polite voice, I keep my environment calm and allow myself the time to check in with my own emotions. Also, drawing out my classroom has proved to be beneficial as well.
The rest of my worries, though, seem to stem from the prep phase and the aftermath. This perhaps is due to poor planning in general and a lack of organization. There was a time where I was using the ASSURE model to plan my lessons. ASSURE is a technology integration method that stands for Analyze learner’s characteristics; State objectives; Select, modify, or design materials; Utilize materials; Require learner participation; Evaluate and revise lesson. The ASSURE model helped me as it caused me to consider my learners and design activities that will show my learners’ understanding of the content. It also helped me to look at my lessons and see what’s working and what’s not.
I noticed that I slacked off quite a bit from using the model, and I feel that I’ve been paying for it in my lesson planning and pacing. Last Monday, I started back using it again, and I did notice a difference. The lesson was still a bit long, but I was able to get through all of the review material and new material in (what seemed like) a short amount of time. I will be writing a post on how my lesson went at a later date.
I will continue to track my headaches, though I am praying that they will be gone once and for all, and I will start back to regular lesson planning with the ASSURE model.
Tech Girl 