A Note to Fellow Educators on End-of-Year Stress

The end of the school year for a high school teacher is crunch time. We are:

  • reading piles of research papers, 
  • correcting last-minute make up work, 
  • completing our own professional evaluations, 
  • designing, reviewing for, administering, and grading final exams, 
  • trying to make sure all 125 of our students are going to finish the year with happy feeling of accomplishment, 
  • cleaning and packing our classrooms, 
  • and juggling our own lives and families at the same time.


Under this crush, it is easy to succumb of the overwhelming stress and feel deflated at the end of the year.  My recommendation to you, my fellow educator, is remember to stop and notice the little signs that you've done a great job.  Over the past few days a few little things have reminded me why I do this job and why it is sooooo worth it. I share them with you, not intending to brag, but to remind you not to miss these same signs as they present themselves to you during the last hot days of school.

A Note From a Parent


A Quick Thank You From a Graduating Senior You Had in Class 3 Years Ago


A Surprise at the End of a Final Assignment 


Jane wrote:
Strangely, this is my final blog post of this year! Weird, very weird. However, I am excited to come back and revisit this page some day in the future and see all of my work chronicled forever. I hope that this blog shows an improvement in not only writing, but my history analysis skills. Thank you for a great year Mrs. Gallagher! And check out her blog at http://kerryhawk02.blogspot.com/

Little Messages Left on Your Classroom Whiteboard

My G block class was into hashtags :)
 

I'm no more beloved than any other educator. We, as a group, tend to give our students and colleagues a lot of credit without taking the time to notice our own accomplishments.  So, as the year closes, be sure to take a few minutes to really notice all of the ways your colleagues, students, and their families are saying thank you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three Social Media Starter Tips

Image
Note: This post was recently  published on the St. John's Prep GOOD to Go blog . Chad Konecky interviewed me and wrote the post based on our discussion. Demonstrating and reinforcing common-sense social media engagement is important, especially when it comes to adolescents and teens. Kerry Gallagher, St. John’s assistant principal for teaching and learning, is leading the Prep’s emphasis on developing best practices when using social media. “Mentoring healthy guidelines like ‘Think before you post,’ ‘be kind and respectful’ and ‘be mindful of who you friend’ are key, but we need to foster—and the boys need to hone—an even keener sense of their life online.” Interestingly, the challenges of building an online identity can become even more difficult if students and their parents choose not to use social media, explains Gallagher. Alternatively, when students do create an online presence, it can become an opportunity to learn how to act appropriately and with accountability.
Read more

Teaching 19th Century Ideologies with 21st Century Technologies

Image
Some concepts are just hard.  They're hard to teach and hard to learn.  Every year that I've taught the History 10 curriculum to sophomores, one of those concepts has been 19th century European political ideologies.  Conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism have never really been pulled together into a lesson that excited me or my students.  We would work through it and we'd both be OK, but never enthralled.  This year I wanted to change that. Part 1: What Do They Already Know? I asked students to define and give examples of each term: conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism.  They used their understandings from a modern American perspective.  We talked it out and they wrote their examples on the Smart Board. Part 2: How Was 19th Century Europe Different? It was REALLY different.  Before going there, though, I wanted them to know what an ideology is. The next step was to help them understand what these ideologies mean to 19th century Europeans.  I found a great
Read more

Guest Post: A Guide to Using Instagram in the Classroom

Image
By Jennifer Gray Everyone loves social media.  Middle school students, like adults, take out their smart phones and tablets every chance they get to check their Instagram feed.  I am a teacher who doesn’t want to fight for my students’ attention.  Instead, I want to become a part of what they are using anyway.  I created my own classroom Instagram account: @mrsgray108 As a teacher of French and Spanish, I don’t think kids can ever get enough practice.   When my students are home at night scrolling through Instagram on their phones, I love that they can be learning a new French or Spanish word or getting some practice with vocabulary they already know.  Making a connection through Instagram brings my class closer and makes my subject more relevant.  Below are just a few ways I’ve incorporated Instagram into my classroom. French and Spanish Word of the Week: I like to introduce a new word about once a week.  Sometimes I choose a word that students have asked me about in
Read more