December 5, 2008

Below is our newsletter for the week. Remember, we are not the end-all, be-all! We are just teachers sharing our thoughts and ideas with you. Feel free to modify strategies you receive from us to fit you and your classroom.

by Coleen Armstrong

As a teacher, you’ll need to be continually vigilant regarding your physical health. The hours are long, the stress monumental, and––worst of all––you’re often held accountable for elements beyond your supervision. It’s easy, therefore, to feel beaten up and burned out. So take some ground-level precautions.

• Keep a box of tissues on your desk. It sounds like such a simple thing, but just watch as that box keeps emptying. Don’t get upset when you need to purchase more and more; it certainly beats listening to your students sniffling throughout your lessons, or being regularly sneezed upon by those who forget to cover their mouths.

• Use spray disinfectants. You’ll need to wipe down your desk daily. Also, your computer keyboard, perhaps even your doorknob. And while you’re at it, clean off your students’ desks every week or so too. This gives you a fighting chance against swarming billions of bacteria and contagious viruses.

• Check your heating vents. A radiator at seat-level almost guarantees that it’s stuffed with old candy wrappers, discarded chewing gum, and used tissues. Look upward at your ceiling grates. If you spot any fur-like growths, that’s mold, which can be a danger to everyone’s immune system. In both cases, call a custodian.

• Wash your hands as often during the day as you can manage. And the moment you arrive home, use plenty of hot water and antibacterial soap. Do this before you hug your baby, change your clothes or (heaven forbid) open the refrigerator door.

• Take an occasional mental health day. No teacher wants to admit to this, because it elicits so much criticism. But you can’t continue to address the educational, psychological and emotional needs of as many as 170 young people day after day without getting a little grumpy. Here’s a surprise: Holding in your mind the prospect of having a whole day to yourself shines like a beacon of restored sanity––so you won’t need to take advantage of it that often.

• Become a walker. Luckily, 20 minutes of brisk striding each day is enough to get the heart pumping, and you can do it either on a treadmill while watching the evening news or on the sidewalk with headphones.

• Choose one night each week to go to bed super-early. Forge the habit of turning in at 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. every Wednesday or Thursday. Your body and your stamina level will both thank you.

Coleen Armstrong is the author of The Truth About Teaching: What I Wish The Veterans Had Told Me, available through www.inspiringteachers.com. Coleen taught secondary English, German, and Spanish in the Hamilton (Ohio) City School District for 31 years. During that time she won both state and national recognition, awards which included Ashland Oil's Teacher Achievement Award in 1992, WKRC-TV's Outstanding Teacher Award in 1993, and being named one of five finalists for the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 1996. Her first book, co-authored with Warren County superintendent John Lazares, Please Don't Call My Mother: How Schools and Parents Can Work Together To Get Kids Back on Track was published by Parenting Press in Seattle in 2001.

Do you have strategies for staying healthy you'd like to share with others? Please reply to this email and I'll put them in our next Idea Share.

With songs including School Teacher Stampede, Trip to Tahiti, Dress Code, and Faculty Meetings this CD is sure to have any teacher or administrator rolling with laughter! Give a teacher you know a little "Teacher Therapy" this holiday season. Click HERE to learn more about this CD of songs!