Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 February 2008 19:37:25
We had a training day at work today which was rather good. Beyond the usual educational type sessions one of the things I went to was a session on relaxation.
I have to say this was absolutely excellent, not only because we got to put together our own mix of oils to take away, but also because the fact the session was on the agenda meant there was "official recognition" we teaching is a stressful job and we need practical strategies to reduce the stress.
It was one of those things where, without spilling your guts and feeling miserable, you were able to recognise the effects of doing the job and feel normal about waking up at silly o'clock worrying about college work or about starting to forget silly little stuff because of the pressure. More than that it gave you a tool to fight back against this. Most importantly, it also implictly gave the message that we are humans and we matter as people. If we are going to achieve our maximum potential as teachers we need to take time out on a regular basis to try and relax.
I think this type of positive recognition of the effects of the job and what we can do to handle it is something there should be more of in education. Too often the issues are perpetuated by communal bouts of moaning or taking the opposite approach of if you ignore it the problem will go away. The fact is we are humans not machines and we do need to take "me time", even if it is only in 10 minute bite size chunks.